


Song of the Seagulls

by Kasan_Soulblade



Series: Song of the Three [2]
Category: LOZ - Fandom, Legend of Zelda the Windwaker, windwaker
Genre: Action, Adventure, Aryll won't stay in the cage, Odd times and odd friendships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-07-12
Packaged: 2017-11-23 07:06:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 52,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/619406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kasan_Soulblade/pseuds/Kasan_Soulblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started with a rush of wind, a thunder of wings, than she was wisked away to what seemed another world.</p><p>And it was, in it's way.  Different.  The whole of it was different.  Housed by things that /shouldn't/ talk but did, and that was just the start of the strangness. </p><p>So, surrounded by monsters she waited and waited for Big Brother to save here. At least that's what they told themselves.</p><p>But it wasn't.  It all started when a bird swept from the skies, one boy went on a journey to save his sister and save the world, but months passed before thier reunion came to be. What happened during that time? This is Aryll's story of Forsaken Fortress.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Thoughts of After, Aryll

**Author's Note:**

> To any familiar with this piece at it's original home,
> 
> This originally was published on fanfiction dot net. I was not pleased with the first few chapters so I rehauled those (made Aryll less sue-ish and less competent, tweeked the dialogue, and took out a few scenes that just don't really work well) without altering the style or content too much. I am happy with the work chapter 5 or so onward, it's just the first few that grate the most so those got the most changes. Still I hope it's enjoyed, and for those reading the first time, thanks for looking and hopefully you enjoy this work though it's many years old.
> 
> Kasan

Thoughts of after, Aryll

Silence

I've heard the stories, the legends. Their nice for children I suppose, but I take them with a grain of salt now. Not everyone does, not everyone wants to. The idea of one thing being evil no matter what, the idea of -How did _He_ term it?- absalloots… something like that… Anyways, that idea… it isn't right. I saw that for myself. If anything is really right or wrong, it's that what we think of right and wrong is probably all wrong in the end.

I thought I was right, I thought when the bird came that I was going to die.

I was wrong.

I thought they were monsters, all of them, less then me.

I was wrong in that too.

I was wrong about a lot of things.

Funny thing… is people don't ask. They say, "It must have been horrible.", "We won't ask, it must have been scary, we don't want to scare you.", I think that they don't want to be scared by what happened so they don't ask. It doesn't scare me, not in the least. Not to say I wasn't scared, a lot of things scared me, especially how _big_ everything was. I won't be the first to say I didn't understand everything, I don't think anyone understood everything that happened… not even _Him_ though I think _He'd_ like us all to think that _He_ knew everything. _He's_ like that sometimes.

If anyone were to ask me what happened I'd tell them the truth. I made some friends, did a little of this, a little of that, it was really busy and a lot happened. I don't think I could ever tell anyone what really happened though, about the Mobolins, and the Wolfos packs, and the Miniblin and Mokoblin _kvlans_ , or even about Fire Eyes.

It's not that I don't want to, I really do…

I just don't think anyone would believe me.

I don't think anyone would understand or would _want_ to understand what happened or even want to know _why_ what happened happened!

But _He_ said it would be like that… and there are days, some days… I wish I hadn't gone back. Because at least when I was _There_ I didn't have to act like nothing happened.

Here, Home, I don't say anything, and _He's_ right in the end…

Silence is the hardest thing in the world.

 


	2. Aryll's Flight

**Song of the Seagulls**

Aryll's flight

"Put me down!" She screamed, she had stopped biting and clawing the massive fist around her waist a while back. Her hands hurt, her teeth throbbed after a few moments of biting, so she squirmed and pushed on the massive talons that were wrapped around her middle. After that not having any effect she started screaming at the bird.

That had had an immediate effect. The huge creature had cringed; its grip had loosened a bit. Taking advantage of her luck Aryll had sucked in her breath, pressed herself as tightly as she could, then griping the edge of the monster bird's talon, had pulled herself out from the monster birds grip. With nothing below her she had fallen, she screamed as the ocean rushed up to meet her and she sank down though the still air to meet what she thought would be her death. The sea was so large and beautiful, Aryll thought to herself, how could their ever be so much water? As the water got closer she wondered would her striking the water would be like a crumb in the seagulls mouth, there for a moment then gone in the hungry darkness?

She never had the chance to find out, a dark mass took place of the water and she fell onto the feathery back of the big black bird. Her earlier fear was chased away by her curiosity; she scampered over the bird's shoulder to look at the ocean. At every down stroke of the black bird's wings it sounded like thunder. Every time the wings would swing up Aryll would have to grip the long feathers so she wouldn't get swept away by the winds. They bobbed up and down, there was more up then down through but that was the big thing about flying, there was a lot more going up then going down, and the ocean below them was a first a mass of foamy white. Slowly the bird pulled farther away from the ocean, the water seemed to cease its protests.

All seemed peaceful for a bit, she had no idea where she was going, but just for a little bit she forgot and enjoyed the feeling of flying, or rather riding on a giant bird that was flying.

Then something, it might have been the way the shoulder on the bird seemed to roll ever so slightly, told her that what enjoyment she was getting was about to end. Years of feeding seagulls and watching them fly around Outset gave her enough warning to sink down low and grab the feathers for all she was worth. She screamed as the bird rolled, did a complete roll that no sane seagull ever would have tried. The bird too screamed. Whether it was because the dosing that the bird's wing got as they lost height and nearly crashed into the water; or from the fact that Aryll had ripped out several feathers in her panic, she wasn't sure why the bird screamed.

Water splashed all over Aryll as the bird simultaneously tried to dry its wing and fly.

"Look out!" She screamed seeing a mass of metal rushing towards them; or rather the bird it seemed was rushing at the strange metal coated mountain. Her stomach flopped like a fish on land as the bird turned then threw itself to the side. She winced when the bird squawked out in pain, anything else she might have said was lost from her when the wind rushed out of her lungs when the bird suddenly pulled itself up in the air as quickly as it could.

"Awk!" The bird cried out a curse to the island below. And for a moment Aryll could see a glint of metal, but then the bird's head sank down low as it checked its leg for damage.

"Oww, you stupid bird, put me down!" Aryll wheezed, her breath was not coming back to her so her voice sounded all funny. "Take me back to Outset you oversized feathered pirate!" She was so scared and angry that she missed the tell-tale flick of the left wing. Suddenly the world spun around her, feathers, wings, sky, and then she was falling again, falling towards the ocean...

A clawed foot snagged her less than a body's length away from the water by the scruff of her tunic. Then, as the bird flared its wings to stall she was herded into grasping talons by a poking beak.

"Put me down!' She shrieked in her loudest, shrillest, voice. This time the bird did not respond. "Take me home!" At that the bird lowered its head to regard her. Unlike all the birds on Outset it's face was a stark black with just a touch of purple in its crown. The crown was roused, the beak parted, and Aryll, reading the bird's aggression wisely fell silent. The beak snapped shut, as if to say, _and stay this way_ , then the bird with the glossy metal mask and fish yellow eyes tuned from her and went back to watching the area around them as it flew who knew where.

XXX

When she first saw the fortress she shrieked. She fought, bit, clawed, and did all in her power to get away. All the bird did was tighten its grip on her mid-section to the point where she could barely breathe. Still she whimpered. Stone, it was like a big mountain, a mess of rooms that were wrapped in the wings of a great stone wall surrounded by the ocean. In the center of those stone wings and poking window eyes there was a tower, a place -where by some mad whim- a ship had been put down on the top of the highest tower point of the tower mountain thing. Half rusted anchors hung down from it like earrings, and to Aryll the grey stone in the moonlight seemed alive, haunted. The pale sickly light seemed like ghosts cling to the fortress' walls.

"Anywhere but there, please..."

Her voice sounded so strange, as if it didn't belong to her. The bird spared a moment to look down at her, and if she didn't know better there was concern in those dead yellow eyes.

The grip on her mid-section loosened slightly, as if the bird was about to comply, but then after a moment of not being dropped Aryll came to realize that the bird had only loosed its grip because it thought it might be hurting her. The intelligence of the beast scared her, but it's all she had at the moment.

"Please take me home." Her eyes burned, her lips trembled as she fought to keep from bawling. The bird cawed, it was an ugly sound, and then they were over the walls and she glimpsed things in the shadows, blurs, then they flew soundlessly along the side of that misplaced ship. Then the bird flared its wings and… well hovered wasn't the word it couldn't hold its bulk still in the air for very long… but it lingered by what appeared to be a walkway. And she saw a figure, a figure of black with spots of red on its head. The birds swaying and her tears blurred out all of the other details, all of them save the figure's eyes. Those were the color of sunset hitting the clouds. All her cries for help died in her throat at the figure’s calm unmoving stance. Something told Aryll that this person had been waiting, that this figure would be deaf to her pleas. Then it was a gesture so slight that she almost missed it, the black figure shook its head, and the bird loosed his claws.

It was going to drop her! Then a spark of stubbornness flared in her. _No you’re not, not without a fight!_ As the talons loosened she gripped the claw, and to the bird's shock clung on despite its wild thrashings.

"You keep that up and you're going to crash again!" She taunted the bird, and she felt the figure's burning eyes on her. Now they were no longer board, but very interested, curious even. It was the kind of measured look Orca would give Link from time to time. "Come on you feathered pirate!" She ignored how the thrashings made her teeth rattle. "Try to knock me off, I double swine dare you!" The bird shrieked its outrage, rolled, and Aryll, despite her aching hands kept her hold. "Do it again!" Aryll mocked. "I'm not letting go until you take me home to my big brother!"

 _Enough!_ The voice whipped over her head and struck the bird between the eyes. It trembled and twitched then went back to its attempts at hovering. Aryll's arms bleed from their fight.

_Put her with the others._

The bird screamed, then Aryll reached up and snatched a feather and it _really_ screamed.

"Take me home or your bird won't have any feathers left!"

The eyes regarded her, and she thought for a moment she heard laughter.

 _Take her to the others, make sure the guards pick her up and escort her to her cell. If she proves to be a problem bring her to me. Breaking her spirit will be the first pleasure I've had in over a decade_.

The bird squawked as Aryll pulled out another feather. She managed to take out four more feathers before the beast dropped her on the roof of the second tallest tower.

X

"Maserrr!" the "maserrr" looked up from the ancient scroll he was reading, an annoyed look on his face. "Maserr," the Moblin grimaced at its bad Hylian, but then "masser" always ordered them to speak it so he always tried his best to get it right. His snout kept getting in the way though, he had yet to complain openly about it though, because the "masser" might suggest cutting it off. "Te Huuman girl, te ‘ew un..."

"Certainly you could handle a little girl! Tie her up, gag her, and then drag her to her cell if that's the problem! I can't believe you would bother me over such a-" The "masser" snorted, going back to his scroll. "-ridiculous..."

"Maserr, me hurts."

At this the "masser" looked up and didn't look through the burly beast. It's normally blue skin was purple due to bruising, and there were scorch marks on its back. It's once curly tail was wound up in bandages, and its snout looked like it had set, much like a human's broken arm would have been set. For a long moment the "maserr" stopped breathing.

"One little girl did this?"

"That, and the stairs she threw him down-" grumbled the Dark Nut as he made a clanking entrance into his Lord's private chambers. "-I was called away from supervising the re-construction of the western rooms to deal with the _problem_ , my Lord." The creature in red armor bowed low and grimaced ever so slightly and moved to rub its leg after standing. "She did this to him, another Moblin, and the Miniblins that rushed into help... We had to fish them out of the harbor."

"Give me a report on this in the morning I have other studies to pursue, is she in her cell?"

Both guards looked at each other for a long moment.

"Last time I checked, sire."

"Don't be insulting, I made those cells myself, they’re virtually fool proof."

"Te girl be sneaky maserrr, 'ery sneaky."

The Wolfos rubbed his leg, then after a moment whimpered.

"My lord, do humans have a poisoned bite?"

"She bit um maserr." The Moblin answered his King's unspoken question with a slight smile. "E squealed ike a min-o-blin wi’ ‘s tail on fire! Eh he he!"

"Oh and you didn't after she ripped the rug under you hooves and kicked you in your male parts!" The Wolfos’ red eyes gleamed in the torchlight.

"Dat wa mi brudder, I wa thrown down da stairs!"

"Oh, and that makes it better?"

The Moblin drew its spear, the Wolfos his sword. Both seemed read to kill each other. Tempers were like his now, strained and rough. But then in this little speck of ground with nowhere else to go the "maserr" could understand such frustration and the rages it lead to. So it was in sympathy and understanding to that anger that he didn't kill them, they did leave his rooms a great deal more scorched then they entered it though.

Boredom had been weighing on him, crushing him; centuries of reading the same Hylian text, watching the disgraced ancestors of the Hylians build their cities and lives around the delusion of a sea. He could not conquer, could not wage war with the oceans keeping him bound.

It seemed that he could not live, could not breath the salt poisoned air. The tainted air brought him low, into periods of great lethargy, where months would slip by and he could not eat or sleep. Perhaps this spirited child, with her fire and wild life, would re-kindle his own spirit.

None to serve him, he served himself, drew out a cask of cold wine and poured himself a glass.

"To life, young one-" He whispered into the dark gloom of the now dead pirate's fortress, of his new fortress. "-and the battles we wage to keep it."


	3. Of Tasks

**Song of the Seagulls**

**Tasks**

Wake up maggots!" A voice snarled. Then there came a sound, a sound at home that meant the sun was rising. Wood slapped against wood. Fuzzily she remembered one of the younger boys on Outset slapping a stick against the side of the small springy trees in front of their house. Link would wake up, grumble, and then put the pillow over his head. Grandma would take that as her cue to start cooking breakfast, and Aryll would run around getting spices and stuff for her. Link would come down once the food was cooked, and Aryll would tease him about his hair being all bed crazy. If she closed her eyes she could almost see it, could almost believe.

But there was the drip of water, the clank of metal, the smell of pig and wet dog, and those things told her she was not home.

She was not home, she was somewhere with no name, with pig men with spears, and snarling voices that crawled out of red shells. Tears stung her eyes, and she curled up into a ball, and wept.

"Rise and shine worm!" The voice snarled, something prodded her, it wasn't sharp, but it was rammed into her so hard she gasped and jerked up. Seeing her tears, the huge blue pig man burst out laughing. "Aww what de mater, someone homesick?" The honey slick tone dried her tears, it made her think of that bully on Outset, the one who called Orca names behind his back, who slept during Stugeon 's classes, and hit every younger child on Outset who was caught by themselves.

"That hurt!" She whined, rubbing her chest where the butt end of the spear had nudged her.

"Get up!" The thing roared. The other girls -Aryll noticed- were rubbing themselves too. It looked like everyone had been hit when they were woken up. "Don't and I'll chuck you in the stew you unsnouted runt!" Spittle flew from the things huge slobbering mouth, no doubt the thought of stew made the thing drool like the pigs would drool when they heard the meal bucket being filled. It seemed either walking on two legs or four a pig was a pig.

"Leave me alone..." Aryll sat back down and curled up into a little ball. The tears were coming back; she wanted to be home, not here, not in this wooden seagull cage!

The closest thing to home she had now was her dreams, and that's where she was going to go...

"I say you get up, now get up!" The staff of the spear slid through the bars and Aryll was slapped by the pole of the weapon. She squeaked, sat straight up, and looked at the huge pig man. Anger scrunched up her eyes.

The pig thing only smiled, revealing small tusks and many sharp yellow teeth. It was happy that it had the excuse to hit her, and it wasn't shy about showing that amusement.

"Looks like new one's 'ere, so me explain things once. You all get fed, every Din rise, every Din death. You let out every day unless Master say to me not to let you out. You taken to out-house to "go" twice a day when I says so. Now Master comes by time to time, you bow when he does, you bow or you get whipped, understand? Since new ones here Master will come by soon, or he may send his dog in to talk to you little runts. You bow to the dog, understand. You call him _Disei-sakinne_ and don't get it wrong, he very touchy about his "title" said wrong, he kill you. Any question, maggots?"

"What did we do?" Aryll managed, after a moment of gathering nerve.

"Do?" The pig man looked baffled, if it had eyebrows they would have met in the center of its head like Stugeon's did.

"Why were we bought here?" This was one of her night questions, one of her inside questions. It was something she _had_ to know.

At her words the beast laughed, or rather snorted loudly and shook its head from side to side in what she thought was a pig’s laugh.

"Only master know that runt." The pig thing brought its head down, sniffed loudly and wrinkled up its slit eyes. "So you the little thing that beat up the other guards."

The girls squeaked and pulled away from her like the guard said she had the grey skin fever. In response guard only did its strange snort laugh. "Master should feed you to sharks, that my thought though, not his. He makes all decisions, all rules, put these silly ones in after he saw us putting little kiddies in stew... Me only follow orders though not make them."

Yet something in that gargle voice told Aryll that the orders that were followed were done so in a way that Link would be forced to do certain chores. Link would sigh, would whine, then do it, and it seemed as if the pig thing was much like that. It was scary how she could see Link in this monster.

"You ask him though little she-dog, you ask him and me watch as he cut you in half and feed you to his fat seagull."

"I will." She said; trying to hide how her legs wanted to tremble and her voice wanted to break. "And he won't dare, my... my big brother’d beat him up!”

It laughed, a slobbery kinda laugh, on hit silenced her, that and the promise that there were more to come if she dared talk.

X

_Disei-sakinne_

It was a name ages ago, Disei was the name, _sakinne_ was an ancient term for warrior. Time had passed and while the deeds of the hero were forgotten or exaggerated to the point they were dismissed, the name though was preserved. It became the name of the elite, the best of the best, the wolfen arm to the fire eyed Lord. Such were the elite called, and while not elite his cubs were and so he could borrow the title amongst outsiders.  They had trained in battle and war, as had he, as had they all.  What he hadn't been trained in was _this_. He looked down and twelve dirty faced human pups looked up at him in fear, there was some anger he didn't doubt it, but it was fear he smelled. That and dirt. The acid reek caught in his nostrils and he wanted to gag at the smell, unable to help himself his ears slicked under his helm as he walked the litter of human pups about.  They were chained together at the ankle, the clinking leash wraped around his paw just in case they tried to run. Running seemed the last thought on the puppies mind’s however.  Most shifted, uncomfortable with the steel bondage.  Others seemed beyond caring and stared blankly ahead. He empathized with those still alive enough to be uncomfortable because he was uncomfortable as well. The smell of rusty steel nauseated him, but they had to be detained as he checked them.

For all he knew they were rabid.

"Well what does the Lord say?"

Flicking an ear the _Desei-sakinne_ turned his fiery eyes upon the blue beast before him and the pig snorted and winced and bowed his apology.

"He hasn't spoken of yet." Kaun growled in their master's tongue, and the children that had shown some interest in the talk between their captors’ went back to looking bored. The spear wielding Moblin snorted and scrapped it's snout against the hay strewn floor in a grossly exaggerated show of being rebuked and the Wolfos felt his lip curl back against his fangs. Luckily the show of fang was hidden by the shadows of his helm.

Wolfkaunos wouldn't rub his nose against the filthy floor of this hovel, but then pigs were like that. Groveling, weak, spineless, sludge. That more or less summed the long-spear tribe up right down to the piglets. Despite the fact that the spear tribe towered over their Miniblin and Bokoblin kindred the lot of them were little more than cowards. Even the word coward made his paw itch to be over the hilt of his blade. But such would not please his Lord. So he mentally sighed and endured.

"He hasn't found the right pointy eared one? Then he doesn't need these ones?" Licked lips told any with wit what would happen to the unneeded ones.

Thinking quickly, because he hadn’t been told if he didn’t need them, and what if, the Wolfos finally fell back on one of his Lord’s edicts.  "He might, _'never throw away a tool until it fails'_. We'll find use for them."

" _You_ will or _He_ will?"

At that allusion of treasion Wolfkaunos growled, and the Moblin shrank back in fear. Reaching out with a clawed fore paw he snatched the creature by its skull necklace and lifted it up so they were snout to snout. Despite the fact that the creature was almost his height and probably twice his girth lifting the pig was no hard feat with the fire of Din running in his blood.

"I speak only his will, never doubt me in that!"

He let go and the creature's cloven feet hit the stone with a muffled "ting". The stupid creature rocked back on its paws and then fell on its rump.

"Feed them, water them, and get them outside in an hour.” He dropedthe leash, none of the puppies even looked up at that. “Our Lord will want to overlook the lot of furless pups so they know what's what."

He said the last in Hylian so that all would understand the import of his words, and the terror that caught in each eye told him it had. Satisfied, Kuan bared his fangs openly and turned on his paw. The sooner he got out of this hay filled room filled with animals the better.

X

Stairs are horrible when your feet are bound. You walked a step with everyone at the same time and if you didn't you all fell down. If you were smart you'd go slow, but you couldn't be smart because they wanted you to do it fast. You had to be fast, because if you weren't fast the pigs would smack you, cuff you, and one of them had a whip… They would crack that whip from time to time, so no one would forget, and the girls would cringe and try to run. But they never ran far, because every time they ran they tangled on the chain and trip. And the pigs would just laugh and bare their fangs, and talk about stew and food.

Seeing the light, seeing the first hint of 'outside' Aryll caused the last trip when she cried out and moved to run ahead. All she wanted to be was free of the gloom, the walls, the stone...

All she did was cause them to trip and to scrape her knees bloody.

"Move worms!" The whip smashed into the ground and they picked themselves up and stumbled forward.

A little later and they stepped into sunlight. They staggered upon the stone shore of the island. The tower loomed behind them like an evil shadow, and above them the seagulls sang.

Their captors did not follow them; the large pig men stood in the darkness their small eyes watching the sky in fear. Their fear was catchy, scared of the dark, now scared of the light, the girls clung to each other and someone moaned. Aryll looked to the sky. Not scared, after all. If there was anything to be scared of the seagulls would know. So Aryll didn't waste so much as one precious second of being out in the light by looking at the tower. She watched the white specks drift above her, smiling at the birds that no one else seemed to notice or care for.

Down came the shadow, a huge black mass that made the gulls cry out and scattered before its coming. Aryll knew, and so did the other girls, they knew what was coming. Screeching the shadow came down, down, down, it fell. Impossibly fast it shot over them then flared open its huge sail sized wings. It hopped once, hopped higher then any of them were tall and turned itself. The claws left long gouges in the stone and Aryll shuddered at the sight. It faced the pale shaking children, stared with its steel faced head and unblinking red eyes...

That's wasn't right though! Its eyes were yellow not red…

Yet the creature had red eyes, red piercing eyes that drifted over them all

"Screee?"

"Yes, sire, that is all." Stepping from dark into light was a huge metal shell wearing… thing. She didn't know what it was, hadn't seen it with the pigs. And whatever it was, it wasn't a pig. It clanked a few steps forward, all metal and sharp edges. Aryll shrank back against the others, scared of the bird, scared of the metal thing…

At least she was scared until it clanked right past them and began to talk to the bird in a growly way that wasn't how people spoke…

Then she saw _it_ and she snickered despite herself.

 _It_ bobbed up and down, curled a little and uncurled, _it_ even swished left to right for a little bit. _It_ poked out from the armor and _it_ was perhaps a little longer then her fore arm, and _it_ was very fuzzy looking. That's because _it_ was a tail.

"Is something funny?"

"You forgot to stick your tail in your shell when you got dressed this morning." Aryll told the metal shell thing.

There was a long silence, the bird blinked, and the monster's tail stopped mid wag and curled on itself.

"It's called _armor_ she-pup."

"A tails a tail." Aryll said firmly.

"Not my tail you Hylian idiot, my arm-"

"What's a Hylian?"

There was another long silence, and then the bird made a whistling sound from its beak and bobbed its head up and down.

"Yes Sire, the ignorance of these creatures is pitiful; your orders remain the same?"

"Kree!"

The tailed metal shell thing smashed its fist into the shell that covered its chest and bowed. In response the bird blinked then turned about ripping apart more stone in the process and opened its huge wings. The wind, it was so strong she fell on her rump and she was vaguely aware that the other girls had done the same. If any cried out surely the winds stole their cries or the thunder that was the rising and falling of those wings drowned it out.

When the bird was gone, when the winds had died the metal clad creature turned to them and there was a glint of white that joined the red sparks that made a home in the darkness that served as the thing's face.

"I am the _Disei-sakinne;_ Wolfkaunos Crimsonrun. I would like to welcome you, the litters of Windfall, Greatfish, and sole pup of Outset, to your new home. You have no names as far as I'm concerned, you only have skills untapped. You will either use your skills, all of them, or you will die. You will be given tasks. When we find a task you are good at you will continue to do it until it is done, then you will be set to another."

"Nobility do not _do_ tasks!" Sniffed one of the girls, she was wore some glossy material that was only just beginning to show signs of dirt and filth.

The metal shell thing threw its head back and let out a warbling howl. Aryll shuddered, and was glad that when the howl ended that she wasn't receiving that red spark stare that the monster put on the girl who had spoken.

"You will do, or you will die. If you have a problem with that little she-pup I'll cut you lose and throw you to the seas, if the sharks don't get you the bird will. So what will it be, the bird, the sharks, or the tasks?"

Whimpering the blonde girl crumpled under that merciless stare and cried.

"I thought as much. You, pigs, unfasten them! They'll need to be able to walk for now!"

 


	4. Twee Comprehension

 

**Song of the Seagulls**

" _Twee?_ Comprehension"

"Scrub there." One of the giant pig men rumbled, somehow talking without breathing. For once it hadn't been drooling, for once it didn't snort. It turned its snout, not from her, but from the reek that wafted from the massive pots and pans all around the food splattered floors.

Aryll cringed back from the pots, put her hand to her face and pinched her nose closed with two fingers.

"Un uh oo ayeee."

"What was-?" The creature paused to take in a deep breath then nearly gagged on the smell. It reeled back as if the smell had smacked it, then rasped at her to do the cleaning "or else". Then with a whine it ran, tears springing from its fat rimmed yellow eyes.

So Aryll sat and stared at the smelling green dripping pots numbly, wishing a little that the rest of her was as numb as her mind. She ached, had been aching for days. At first the girls had been together, they had cleaned a room full of pots and pans, getting together and knocking them over. Aryll had been collecting the feathers of the seagulls that would glide into their cell at night, and that had been put to a use. After much arguing and whining –and the growls of the metal things telling them to "hurry the…" Aryll tried to forget the rest of it because they had said a word that no one was supposed to _ever_ say- the girls had decided that the person who drew the short seagull feather would have to go inside and clean. By the end of that day no one had nice clothes, not even the girl from Windfall. They were all covered in grease and green and red gunk, it'd been horrible, and smelly. The guards who had been watching had growled and grunted amongst themselves near the end. Two had padded off... and when the girls had come out of the dish room they had been promptly dumped with icy cold water then dragged back to their cell.

And the sun that had been rising when they went into that room had been setting behind them, staining everything an ugly red.

She had been so tired, she had forgotten how many times she tripped going up the stairs, she was so tired that she didn't look up to see if the seagulls were still flying above or if the mean metal face bird was back.

The next day one of the girls from Greatfish Isle had been taken away to do something else, Aryll hadn't asked because the horrible cold in her had taken her voice. It had not taken the Maria's voice though, and the blonde girl cried and wailed as the pigs had dragged her off. The pigs cuffed the young girl, ignoring her sobs and wails save to hit her when she was too loud.

And again, with only eleven girls Aryll was left in the windowless hole-like room, and again they scrubbed all the pots clean, having to work harder now that Maria was gone.

When they got to their cell Maria had already been there. She had been shaking, cold, and talked to no one. When the morning came the pigs had split them up farther, Maria and all the non-blonde children had been in one chain, and when the girls had reached the long wall less halls that went between each squat building. Down went Aryll's group, a long winding path that chased itself down and down. All the halls going down were the same, with doors that they weren't allowed to open stood against the walls every thirty steps, every five doors was a big circle room that had several planks tied together with bits of yellow stuff that one of the other girls called parchment on the planks. The "parchment" was covered in squiggles that she could glimpse at before the whip pig smashed his nasty whip by her and told them to run.

So they ran, down, down, into the dark smelly places, they ran past torches that burned in sunless places. Someone tripped, she didn't know who, and they all had to get up again. Aryll caught a tantalizing glimpse of ships and the ocean, but the pain in her side was so great and breathing hurt that she could only see and think for a second before the spiky pain and whip snap made her stagger on…

And one by one the blonde girls with pointy ears were taken away. The guards snarled at them for not finishing the impossible task then picked a girl by random. Four dwindled, became three, then two, and now Aryll was alone in the room with the dishes and the pigs were just waiting. If she didn't get it done they would come in and take her to wherever they took the other girls. To that horrible place where you forgot to speak and that made you cry…

Once that thought would have scared her, but now she was so tired that she didn't really mind the horrible smell, or the scary place, or anything. She let her hand fall limply to her side and stared at the pots that quietly dripped. Finally she grew bored of watching the pots and lay on the cold grey floor to watch the pots ooze on her side. It wasn't all that different from her side and the smell was still horrible…

Just as her eyes were beginning to slide shut the door shook itself off its hinges as the guard behind it smashed his long pointy stick against the rotted wood.

"You best work or Master's bird you up and eat you! Chomp chomp!"

"Stupid pig face!" Aryll huffed; despite not taking a nap she felt a little better after lying down for a bit. She stared at the pots –most of which were bigger then her!- and then at the one bucket and brush they'd given her. "Mean stupid pig face…" Aryll sniffled. "I can't do this all by myself, it's not fair!"

Despite her words Aryll picked up the bucket and brush and decided to pick the small little pan way in the back, it wasn't all that scary and probably wasn't as nasty as the other ones. And she didn't have to feel bad for taking the small one from any of the other girls now…

Setting the pan in her lap, ignoring how it dripped red goo onto her dress, Aryll quietly scrubbed and cleaned the pan, and as she worked her tears went away. She smiled, happy when she could see the dented up metal past all the grease, past all the red gunk.

She remembered the first night, when her legs had curled against her will and the muscles in her arms had clenched. She had cried in pain, had cried when her stomach ached, had cried until it hurt to cry.

But all her crying did was make the guards laugh.

The girls had all cried the first night and the guards had snorted and sniffed, they licked their long lower teeth like they were eating nice food.

The big pig people stared at them with blue faces and had drooled. They had eaten the sadness and cries and wanted more. Since sadness and tears weren't really all that filling to Aryll's empty belly she could blame them, but it was scary how they looked at her and the rest of the girls and grinned all sharp teeth smiles with a bit of drool slipping out.

"It's not fair…" Aryll huffed. "Stupid feather pirate should of left me alone… I don't wanna be here!"

Aryll bit down on a really hard sniffle, swallowed it down and scrubbed the plate in the same area over and over again with her eyes closed until the stinging went away. When the wet feeling in her eyes was gone Aryll turned the pan over in her hands, began to clean the other side.

She wasn't going to cry again, because the pigs ate her tears, they ate her cries. And the monsters liked how her tears tasted.

X

The pot wobbled, clanked, and did not tip. She pushed and pushed and it was too heavy! Gasping Aryll rubbed her arms and put her back against the final pot and glared impotently at the darkness around her.

She was startled to see that the darkness was staring back.

Twin yellow eyes stared at her from the shadows, they belonged to something shorter then she was something shorter then the laughing, giggling, things with small sticks in their paws. It stared at her, she stared at it, and then the thing made a strange sound she'd never heard before.

"Twee?"

The scream of terror died in her throat, something that made a cute little noise like that couldn't be bad, could it?

"Tweee?"

Getting on her knees Aryll scrunched down to that the "twee"ing little creature, trying to pierce into the darkness to see what it was. But despite her efforts all she saw were those little yellow eyes. The little creature blinked, turned its head –she guessed that since all she could see were the eyes turning away from her- left to right then looked up at her, its tiny eyes turning from a bright fire yellow to a dull sun bleached yellow.

"Tw twee?"

"Hello…" Aryll looked straight into those strange solid yellow eyes and smiled. It was the first smile she'd… well… smiled in forever it seemed.

"Twe!" The small eyes scrunched up and she could almost hear a smile in the thing's voice.

"Hi!"

"Twee! Tw tweee!"

"Do you want to come out? I bet you're cute like my friend's piglet!"

At the word "piglet" the creature stopped making noise and turned to look at the stairs that lead back up.

"Oh, all the bad people are gone." Aryll assured it. "They won't be back for a while."

"Twooo?"

"Promise, cross my heart." Aryll drew a quick triangle on her heart with a finger and the creature stopped staring at the stair and went back to staring at her. "Don't you want to come out?"

"To!"

"Pretty please?"

"To!"

There was a note of finality in that squeaky voice so Aryll gave up.

"Oh alright…" Aryll sniffed. "My gran'ma would say you were being more stubborn then Link though. And that's a _lot_ of stubborn."

Unimpressed by her scolding the eyes turned to little slits then circled each other. The yellow slits rolled like marks on a child's ball, back and forth, back and forth. Aryll clapped he hands and the mysterious creature "twee"d with every clap.

"What's going on in there?" A horrible slobbering pig voice roared.

"Just cleaning!" Aryll called back.

Heavy footsteps told her that she was going to be "checked on" and if there was a "problem" she'd be sent to that horrible room where Maria and the others had gone. She couldn't stop them, they were big and mean and she couldn't fight like her big brother. So she did the next best thing. She met those yellow eyes that had now opened wide and darted left and right in fear.

"Run!" Aryll hissed.

The yellow eyes winked out like a candle being blown out. And she could only hope that…

The door opened and she looked up at a huge blue skinned pig. Ugly purple warts that sprouted black hairs ran along its arm. She knew because it was the arm she saw up close as the creature reached down and smacked her with the flat of its hand.

"You, what you do? Stare at wall stupid she-thing? You no stare, you clean!"

The tears came despite that she swore she'd never cry, and the creature snorted, licked its thick lips. Aryll cringed back from the thing's long lower fangs, wrinkled her nose at its bad breath, but dared not to scramble back in fear. It would follow; it would hit her with its spear…

"You clean, now!"

Aryll nodded, cradling her throbbing face with cringing fingers she nodded...

"Pot no clean, I stick _you_ in pot and cook!"

Aryll whimpered, could not even nod, only cringed from that threat and flinched under the grasp of those paws on her shoulders. She was released, the creature snorted, a grin curled up the ends of its snout and with a rumble it walked off. Aryll did not dare open her eyes until the clicking steps were gone and the door slammed shut.

Something wet, large and wet pressed against her foot. She started in fear, and two yellow eyes looked at her from the shadow that seemed to have detached itself from the wall and cuddle her foot.

If it hadn't been an oily black Aryll would have thought it a chu-chu…

"Twee…"

"He's gunna cook me." Aryll whispered in horror. "I can't… it's so big I can't clean it!"

The yellow eyes scrunched up then with a "toee!" the black chu-chu sank against the floor and if it weren't for the yellow eyes she would have thought it was a moving shadow. It slithered up the side of the pot and she lost sight of it as it pressed against the black iron and poured itself into the pot. There was a loud "doing!" and with a clank the pot hopped up and down all on its own! Grease, bones, all the nasty stuff inside went flying out and Aryll scooted as far away from the jumping metal thing as she could.

The door banged open.

"What in Din's Hellfire is going in-?"

A really large bone flew out of the pot and smacked the mean pig man on the head. Aryll giggled, and the monster gapped in total shock.

"Magic!" The monster rasped. Dropping its spear the creature turned on a hoof and ran up the stairs.

It didn't make a clean escape though, for grease and red goop spewed from the pot and covered its bare upper torso. So, while it ran down the halls howling words in its growly talk, it dripped.

When the monster was gone the pot stopped hopping and out slithered the shadow with yellow eyes. It spilled over the rim and then dribbled down the iron side like water, when I was on the floor it reformed into a blob with three little digitless paws. Those yellow eyes were bright and shiny, and they focused on her and scrunched up.

"Twee!"

Aryll didn't care it was a chu-chu, didn't care it was a monster, or that it was greasy. She went to the little creature and scooped it up in her arms to hug.

"TO!"

With a flash of purple smoke is disappeared from her arms and she felt something slither past her feet.

"I wasn't mad Twee! I wanted to say thank…"

"Two-two!"

Was the only reply she got, she turned to see four small yellow eyes regard her from the shadows of the room, then they winked out.

X

" _Wha_ t did you just say?"

The quill stopped its sweeping motion and a black drop fell from the feather's tip and blotted out the last line in a string of complex figures.

"Magic sir, one of the puppies... er child-hyli-…" The master's eyes scrunched up and Kaun licked his fangs. "One of the _things_ cast a spell on the pot she was to clean. I've never seen a Moblin turn sky blue before Sire… Her guard said something about a bone and a headache."

The chair, a mess of interlocking stiff wood poles that were draped with the dull grey pelts of sheep creaked as its occupant shifted. The feathers around the arms of the throne stirred as the Lord of Forsaken stood. Despite the fact he stood Wolfkaunos could not see his lord's face, but then his Lord liked having the desk and chair face away from his lesser. The dark skinned man's black robes stirred around him, whispered over and hid the sandals but did nothing to hide the twin lengths of steel that lay sheathed against his Master's side. The dark knight sniffed the air quietly, but could smell -as always- only hot sand and old blood from his lord. The man –if that was even the proper term- had no other scent about him.

"Sire?" The armored wolfos ran his bright red tongue over his fangs. "What are your orders?"

"You _said_ you had brought all of them before me to be checked… _all_ of them." The voice was soft; a rumble that might have come from the throat of a feeding wolfos, but it was no sound of pleasure, rather barely contained rage.

"I did sire, except the one that ah… caused the accident.

It was getting harder to speak hylian, his tongue wanted to slide out between his fangs and loll, he suppressed the instinct by running his tongue over his fangs several times. Any show of weakness and he'd be skinned alive, he knew that because his sire had died the exact same way when he'd gotten too old to properly hunt and kill intruders.

"Bring her to me, now."

Wolfkaunos could not gulp, an excess of saliva would have drizzled down his fangs, not caught in him mouth. He settled for licking his fang frantically and shifting from hind paw to hind paw.

"I…" Wolfkaunos scrunched up his red eyes and prayed the end would be fast and Hell merciful. "…can't…. Sire…"

" _What?_ "

The last word came out as a whisper, a very dangerous whisper. Wolfkaunos' knees began to knock together and he began to shake so hard his armor jingled and despite his best efforts his tongue lolled out into full panting glory. All attempts at speech drizzled off into an incoherent whine.

"I gave you an order _Wolfos_." The Master's voice was a hiss; it matched the hiss of the sword being drawn perfectly. "You obey my orders, unless you'd like to meet Din I expect those orders to be fulfilled very soon."

"I… can't Sire, I can't swim! Nayru would take me faster then Din would if I died at sea!" The wolfos howled, cringing back from the sight of that blade in his Lord's hands.

"You… can't swim?" The Lord of Forsaken's voice was perplexed and Wolfkaunos shivered in response. His Lord did not take confusion well. The Master always had an answer and grew violent if he could not get one swiftly when –by pure mischance- he did not have one.

"She said…" Wolfkaunos shivered. "It was as if she read my heart and saw my greatest fear Sire!"

There was another hiss, a blade being sheathed, and Wolfkaunos opened one burning eye. His Lord had put a hand over the back of a chair and was lazily leaning against it. The show of ease did not fool Wolfkaunos in the slightest, all predators relaxed before springing on the kill.

"Do not let terror bind your tongue Wolfkaunos." The Lord said in a soft silken tone. "For if it is bound then I must cut the binding, with a knife…"

"She said… she would… pop me out of my armor Sire, and dunk me into the sea!" The wolfos whimpered. "I don't quite know what "pop" is Sire, but the last…"

Red eyebrows hopped in surprise and the Dark Lord's face contorted bizarrely. The lips curled up and the teeth and fangs were almost all bared. A low rumble swelled the man's chest, clawed up through his throat, and came out as a sharp repetitive bark. The fangs, Wolfkaunos thought, the sound must have been distorted by his Lord's mix match of dull hylian tooth and wolfos sharp canines.

"She said _what_?"

"That… she'd pop me out of my armor…" Wolfkaunos began.

"Verbatim Dark Knight, do not let fear strip you of strength."

There was a funny ghost of the bark to his Lord's tone that Wolfkaunos could not begin to understand.

"She said: _If you put one paw on me or any of my friends or if you mean metal thing try to wave those big swords at us or have those pigs use their sticks and whips I'll pop you out of your armor and drop you into the sea_!"

"Whips?" The Master growled dangerously.

"The Moblins have disobeyed your orders Sire, they use whips and are harder on the pups then you told us to be. The young pups face was proof enough of that."

"Violence does have a way of bringing out dormant capabilities at a faster rate…" The orange eyes slid off of him and Wolfkaunos took a deep breath in relief. Maybe he was going to not join his sire's pelt on the wall just yet. At that promising thought his tail wagged in the confines of his armor. "Still, she might be dangerous… What color was the spell's aura?"

"Black, Sire. At least that's what Long-Spear reported."

The Lord of Forsaken frowned; his hand spasmodically clenched the hilt of his left blade.

Clench, relax, clench, relax… Wolfkaunos wearily took a step back and then dared another. His Master's attention was focused on the pup, not an insignificant guard like him; perhaps he'd get to the door before…

"Wolfkaunos?"

 _Damn damn damn_ …

"I want all the Moblins removed from their duties of supervising the children. Divide the task between the members of your pack and the Mokoblin clans."

"Yes Sire." Wolfkaunos bowed, managed to sneak another step towards the door.

"I want you to personally oversee the source of the disturbance. When her guard is down bring her to me."

"Yes Sire." Wolfkaunos managed another step.

"And, dark knight?"

"Yes, Sire?"

"You are dismissed. That way that it's all formalized, so you won't have to keep putting one paw behind the other. Now, before you go-"

Wolfkaunos' ears slicked back in the darkness of his helm.

"-do not his hit the child or cause it pain. Tread quietly around it. Young magi are very dangerous and excitable. I killed a number of my people before I gained control over my own capabilities. After all-" The Dark Lord's lips curled in one corner. "-being popped out of one's armor and into the sea is quite a painful affair."

Unable to gulp Wolfkaunos merely licked his fangs, and bowed low to his Lord. He had to wonder at the strange half fang bared smile, or the alien glint in those orange eyes. And though he wondered… no comprehension came to him.


	5. Clawless Paws

 

**Song of the Seagulls**

Clawless paws

" _Do not growl, bare fang, or threaten the Hylian child. Just watch and report what you see. If she is a Magi she will use her skills again."_

"' _Till when my Lord?"_

" _Until something happens Wolfkaunos, until something happens."_

X

A great deal was happening. Wolfkaunos watched from the shadows of his helm while the girl swept, dusted and mopped. Overall it was a very enlightening experience, if one had a craving to learn the tasks worthy of a den bound she-Wolfos. He yawned and his tongue lolled out past its customary place of behind glittering white fangs. The shadow choked hall and the shadows under his helm obscured the gesture, and he wondered if he could get away with taking off a gauntlet to scratch at that itchy spot on his back.

He decided against it, he was in hostile territory –as if to remind him of that he spotted a Moblin out of the corner of his eye, the beast fingered it's weapon then seeing the Wolfos decided to withdraw- at the moment and any weakness would be unwise.

Wrinkling his nose at the smell of unwashed pig Wolfkaunos told himself he was merely fulfilling his Lord's will, that should be both an honor and spur enough to endure anything. Still his nose would not un-wrinkle and his nausea would not recede. The damning smell of pigs secreting oil and fat and filth, and humans secreting oil, made his stomach turn.

He wondered how the humans were tolerating it, pigs were on a whole nose dead but…

When a small pack of the pups ran past him to a window to pant out the relatively purer sea air Wolfkaunos felt his lip curl and a hint of fang glint under his helm. He watched the process with amusement. Three pups were hanging their heads out to the winds and three more were pinching their noses and going deeper in…

Smart little puppies, very smart, so they were taking turns doing the more reeking sections as teams and had made these little cleaning packs who took turns whittling away at a smelly foe… er problem. He wondered who had come up with the idea, it was a good one.

He could learn much by studying these puppies, quite a bit.

Suddenly he didn't quite resent his pup sitting task all that much, it certainly was better then patrolling halls of a castle hundreds of feet under the water in a kingdom that no longer harbored any enemy soldiers.

His task held meaning, and that was enough.

X

"Where are the pig men?" Aryll asked, as the metal shell thing that had been quietly following them all day. Well it was kinda quiet, as it clanked and rattled along behind them. It didn't yell at them so it was sort of being quiet in a non-clanky sort of way.

"There are many pig based creatures in the Lord's realm, child."

Aryll blinked at the rumble voice that seemed to rise out from somewhere under the red shell creature. She hadn't expected it to talk at all. All the pigs bigger then her did was yell, all the pigs smaller then her just laughed. Maybe the red shell thing wasn't a pig then!

Cheered by that though Aryll smiled and tried to look up and see what its face looked like. Its voice was a source less rumble that seemed to have words in it. As to what it was saying, well its voice was so deep Aryll had to wonder if she heard the words right half of the time. She would have put her ear to the thing's metal side to hear better, but those ember eyes that flared up and stared at her in such a way that she knew that would _not_ be a good idea.

The metal thing was a little mean, Aryll decided, but not as mean as the pigs. She put her hands behind her back and rocked back on her heels, peering up into the red speckled darkness that was the thing's face.

"A pigs a pig." She confirmed.

"As a tail is a tail?"

And at that she recognized the voice, she smiled as the name came to her, she'd been trying to think of its name all day too!

"Are you Wolfcanoo?"

"Wolfkaunos, and you have cleaning to do, get back to it."

"Grouch!"

The red specks squinted up and Aryll dashed off to do as she was told.

X

" _Sire… what is a "grouch"?"_

" _It is a word that means one is in bad humor. Is that all you have to report?"_

" _The pups are… intelligent, cunning when put together. They talk amongst themselves about pigs -that's their term for everything here-, and strange places, and they talk of cleaning and clean."_

" _No rebellion as of yet?"_

" _They think we'll kill them if they dare. Most of them have been beat Sire, none are healed enough in spirit to fight back yet. Consider them de-clawed my Lord."_

" _And their talk?"_

" _They are quiet Sire, they don't talk to me, though that new one did. She called me a grouch. But past that I am ignored and they just wait and wait for someone to save them."_

" _How docile the blood has turned. Little more then sheep."_

" _Even day old Wolfos pups would have more spirit Sire."_

Din was eating his tail for that comment today.

"No!" The blonde head furred pup who once wore finery growled.

"Yes!" The other, older, blonde haired pup who came from Outset snapped

"No, I won't!" She stomped a paw.

"Yes you will!" The other pups yelled as one. "We all went already!"

On and on and on the yelling of "no" "yes" went. As the racket grew even _more_ shrill he wondered if the a flock of Kargaroc were going to come down and think a flock of potential mates were in heat. He put a paw to his helmeted head and rubbed, it was futile, the steel, but he couldn't help himself…

"I… can't… I mean it's undignified for a lady of Windfall to be climbing around outside like a thief."

"Oh for the sea's sake, give me the stupid stick and I'll go out." The older golden head furred pup snapped. She snatched the said stick and then climbed out the open window. He drifted over to the window to watch, he'd seen them climb in and out before of course, but he had wondered what they were doing. When he saw he had little wonder as to why none of them wanted to go out again. Stick in hand the pup was scraping aside the mess of white bird droppings alongside one of the outer walls of the hall.

He decided to have a long talk with the person giving tasks, the pups weren't supposed to be put in that much danger yet… but the Master had said that stress and fear might make things happen…

A few minutes later after scrapping at the sides of the fortress with the stick she came in, and while she wasn't a Wolfos she was growling to herself in a way one of his pack would if they were mad.

She didn't growl at him –wise choice for her, as he would have growled back and perhaps bite the girl if she went too far over the line- but when she threw the dung covered stick aside there was more then the reek of bird droppings now added to the air.

It was a hot, bitter, smell tinged with a hint of sweetness of the blood that had rushed to her face.

"You clean your own dumb rock."

Defiance, he would remember that smell.

"You will do as ordered." He growled. "You do as ordered or…"

"Or you'll feed your stupid bird with us; well it's no different if we fall off your stupid rock!"

How could he argue the pup's logic, right as it was did he have right to argue it? He squinted up his eyes and snarled, and the pups, all of them, cringed back in fear. Well that was a _little_ better. After all he was master around her, maybe not _The Master_ but he was a master to them. All were master to them, and they needed to learn that. This one had missed the beneficial cuffs and smacks to teach her that and…

And she looked up and he saw again the bruises the dark marks that ran across half of her face.

He winced and his armor creaked as he shrank back from that glare.

He suddenly missed the sheep manner in them before; the scared, spineless, whining, was preferable to the fire in this one. The other she-pups cringed back from him as he growled and stepped forward; the lone eldest she-pup clenched her clawless paws and stood her ground.

He bent down reached out with claws extended and dragged her so the tip of her pink nose was lost in the shadows of his helm.

"You will do so because I said so, you will live in fear of the "or else" because you don't want to imagine the "else" that occurs! Is that clear?" She stared him in the eyes, and had the audacity to actually meet his gaze and growl and flail her fists upon his armored head. He endured the hits; his own pups could have done worse… but the nerve of this stinking human pup made his blood flame! He growled, and shook her roughly. He could feel wet under his claws, the wet blossom of blood under his paws made him come back to himself… Wolfkaunos dropped the now very still pup and looked to the other pups who were staring at him in horror.

"Get to work!"

"We don't have anyth-…"

_Din's flame! Thinking never occurs to this lot of puppies does it?_

"Find something to do in the next room, now!"

So they shuffled off and he stared at the rebellious creature. It was small, very very small, he lifted a small limp forepaw and sniffed at the blood that gathered around the small skinless span. None of it was his, all of it hers. He licked at it, it wasn't bad tasting, too salty for his like, but it was fresh. She must have marked herself while fighting him as surly as he marked her.

"Stupid creature, you use your claws on steel, you broke all your claws and you try to fight with them anyways."

That was the only reason he could understand for those poor clawless stub paws she had… Pulling out a pouch that shook and jiggled, he opened it and fished out a squirming red chu-chu. He turned it to little more then pulp by clenching his paws and then ran the water red stuff over the small cuts along the she-pups' paws.

"Don't fight things bigger then you pup." He growled, using a claw to slice the front of her strange non-armor garment. "You always lose when they're stronger then you."

He then poured the last of the dead red chu-chu over the red gouges over the she pups chest and sat back on the heels of his hind paws to supervise the dead chu-chu's innards knit up the wounds.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence but I had a huge dilemma with this story. 
> 
> While I love the premise of Aryll getting along in Forsaken until her eventual rescue I also want to do an AU piece where Link teams up with Ganon and Aryll and uses the bird in lue of the KoRL to explore the world of WW, and then of course there's the sequel to this piece, and the prequel (in short the whole series "Song of the Three")... all of which I'm writing all at once. 
> 
> All the ideas that have been rattling around in my mind have been causing overlap and slowing everything down. Hence why there's been so few updates. For that I apologize.
> 
> To those still reading, my thanks.

 

Musing Interrupted

 

 

"Dog lover!" Hissed the red haired girl named Maggie, Aryll winced at the barb, shrunk into herself as the other girls rained similar terms on her.

The guards did nothing, the long eared pig creatures stared blankly ahead. Their orders were to stop anyone from hurting the children, not to stop them from turning on each other.

The dark skinned man peered into a bowl to watch the verbal abuse fall upon the eldest golden haired child. Shaking his head he waved a hand over the bowl and the image wavered, rippled, and once again the ancient piece of pottery was filled with nothing more then mundane sea water. For a long moment he closed his eyes, words and images playing over and over again in his mind. When they opened they gazed dully at the world that had fully crushed him, he realized that it had utterly destroyed him, just as it strived to destroy the child...

As it strived to destroy them all.

He opened his orange eyes, relaxed his death grip on the throne of bone and animal skins and then lazily lifted a hand.

"Come forward Long-Spear, you sought an audience with me and now you have it..."

He didn't turn, hooves thudded dully against wood, and he tried not to think of the new set of scour marks on the flooring, and he pointedly tried not to breath.

"As I recall, it is proper protocol to bow before one's King."

Hooves scrapped against cloth, left twin slash marks through the rug, and Ganondorf winced, it sounded like a very large tear. Pride though would not make him take back his command despite the damage it caused. This Moblin was lesser then him. All beings lesser then him bowed.

They bowed or they died, they lived in fear because there was no hope.

The oceans had taken hope from him; he had taken hope from everyone else.

A fair trade all in all.

"Maserrr..." The Mobolin's voice was a gargle as the creature tried not to drown in its own spittle while it spoke. "My tribe need know... why we no watch she-things?"

"Are you questioning me, Moblin, Long-Spear?"

He waited, waited for a different answer, something to break the monotony of living for centuries and dealing with the same spineless creature's decade after endless decade.

"N... no Sire!" The thing squealed. "Me no question, tribe need know!"

And yet again he tasted bitter disappointment.

"The Wolfos Knights have a temperament more suited to the task, your kind are too violent and tend to break the rules. Just continue to focus on repelling intruders, would be rescuers, and manning your anti-ship vessels."

"You let Mokoblin shrimps do task."

It was almost a protest; Ganondorf frowned into the darkness before him.

"For the same reason I allow the Wolfos to do the task do I allow the Mokoblins. You have your reasons, now get out."

"Yes sire…"

And though frightened, as was a Moblins norm to be, there was a faint hint of something in the creature's tone that worried him. He didn't recognize the tone, or rather he did, but the recognition hadn't settled into his conscious mind just yet. He stared at the darkness, his sunset hued eyes distant, the flecks of red behind the dull orange orbs dimmed then flared with the fires of frustration as nothing came to him.

Nothing came, save the phantom pain in his chest, and the fleeting image of a glittering silver blade sliding into his breast.

X

"This is stupid Wolfkaunos."

"I did not make the task, the Master did."

"Well then _he's_ pretty stupid." Aryll tapped the oversized broom against the stone ground that served as the walk way between one of the tower like rooms and the other. She'd gone around and around brushing up dust and white gull droppings, and other nasty things; she'd circled the outer area of the place that Wolfkaunos called Forsaken so many times that she knew how many stones there were between the watch towers. "How many times do I have to do this?"

"Until it's clean."

"It _is_ clean!"

"Umm..." The armor rumbled as the dog creature inside of it thought quickly. "Well the water keeps coming back." He said lamely. "You need to keep on top of it."

Aryll gave the Wolfos a long look that Gran'ma would give Link for saying that he cut the grass yesterday and it just _magically_ grew back the next day...

"We're on an _island_ , surrounded by the _Great_ _Sea_ , I think the walk ways going to get a little wet!"

"Pup, just do it. Don't question, just do as you are told."

"Like you." Aryll snapped grouchily, she went back to sweeping and did not see those red eyes wink out then flare up dangerously.

"You do not question because..."

"Because every time I ask something you scratch me."

"No..." The Wolfos sighed. "You question because you are ignorant of the answers. I know the answers, and what I know has taught me that I want to know no more."

Aryll frowned, leaned on the broom then walked to the edge of the walk way. She got on her tip toes and stared at the large platform where the big bird had come down to stare at them a few days ago.

"Mr. Wolfkaunos..." There was a wistful note in Aryll's voice. "I have to work all day, right?"

"Yes." The Dark Knight's tone was exasperated. "You aren't going to whine about that again are y-"

"Did they say where I have to work?"

"Err... no... not that I recall."

"Could I work there then?" Aryll pointed to the platform.

"It's so... bright and... _sunny_." The Dark Knight shuddered

"You won't melt." Aryll grinned up at the knight. "Pleeeeease Wolfkaunos, pretty pleeeease."

She then widened her eyes and showed all her teeth in her best smile.

Wolfkaunos made a few growling noises, muttered a few bad words...

But in the end he lost to that wide grin and those glittering shadow hued eyes.

X

He cocked his head to the side, set the quill aside so that the inevitable drip of ink would not blot out his writing this time.

Again he heard the sound, and he frowned.

In his world such a sound should not exist, yet the winds brought it to his ears again.

Intrigued he stood, to the casual observer the darkness shivered and split in twain. The darkness that had crimson eyes drifted over to the nearest window, and a black hand hesitated a mere fraction of an inch from pulling aside of dark brown fabric that spared the Dark Lord the sight of the sun. Curiosity proved to be a greater spur then dread of the light, and so the curtain was pulled aside and he looked down upon his domain to see who dared...

Who dared laugh, who dared laugh in the grey bleak world he had built that reflected all of his sorrow.

"You don't do it like that!"

"Really, then how does one catch bird feathers then?"

"With your hands, not your teeth!" The laughing voice softened, became sympathetic. "I bet it didn't taste very good did it?"

"No, it didn't."

Squinting in the light he glared down at a red mass of armor and a golden haired child.

"Bet I can catch more then you can!"

"You have a broom, of course you can!"

"Your paws are bigger then my hands, I _have_ to use the broom."

"You could accept defeat in a dignified manner and not cheat."

"I never cheat! You gave me the broom."

"To _clean_ with!"

"I am cleaning, and if I get more feathers then you while I clean well... Bleh!"

There was a growl.

"I won't lose to some Hylian puppy."

"I'm from Outset, not Hylooloo."

"Hyrule!"

"Hylooloo sounds better."

"Hurmph well I have ten feathers already... you're losing pup!"

"No I'm not, I'll sweep you away!"

The Wolfos Knight growled and both proceeded to run around chasing feathers and get little cleaning done.

For a long moment Ganondorf stared at his minion and the child, and then slowly let the drape fall back into place.

He then decided he needed a drink, preferably something alcoholic.


	7. Night Game

Song of Seagulls

Chapter 7

Night game

 

 

Feathers safely tucked away in her dress pocket, Aryll lay down. Her arms proved to be the only pillow available, and the cold stone could not be warmed by any blanket, not that a blanket had been provided for any type of warming. She shivered, her belly growled in hunger even as it shrank back from the icy rock. But there was nowhere else to sleep. The other girls lay in a huddle, curled around the one part of the big sea gull cage that was right by a torch.

The guards left the torch lit tonight. Looking at the other girls -most of who were scared of the dark- Aryll decided that the small pig guards were a lot nicer than the big, fat, pig guards. The fat pig guards would _pretend_ that they were going to leave that torch lit, then they'd dump a bucket of cold water on it, and the girls who were huddled around that light would go to sleep in the dark, cold, wet, _and_ scared.

"G'night Maggie..."

"'night Mary..."

On and on the "good nights" went until everyone had said good night to everyone else. No one said good night to her, but she'd had a few nights to get used to it. She had a few nights so that the tears wouldn't come anymore.

She stared into the darkness and the guards around her yawned and grew as sleepy as the children that they watched drifted off one by one. Aryll wasn't too sure who fell asleep first. The girls or the guards, it was so close, but soon the room seemed like it was filled with snoring.

She smiled, when she found that the darkness was staring back, and the darkness made it's usually "Tweee" in greeting.

"'lo."

"Twe!"

Aryll yawned, stretched, and then sat up.

"I was gunna fall asleep you know."

Those sun gold eyes twinkled and she knew that Twee knew she was stretching the truth a little.

The shadows shivered a little, and then a piece of them sporting large yellow eyes slithered in her direction. Twee almost looked like an upside down drop. The sometimes yellow, sometimes gold, eyes were perched on the side of the lump facing her. Sometimes the eyes weren't where they were supposed to be though, they'd drifted around when Twee talked or just chase each other around for no apparent reason, but today the eyes were locked on her while the oily black around Twee's base oozed and slithered forward. Basically that itty-bitty puddle that oozed under Twee when he was being tall was all that dragged the upside down drop forward.

As Twee oozed towards her -the word walk did not fit Twee at all- he made happy noises. Aryll smiled, knelt down, and hugged him close. Though he felt slimy he never smeared on her clothes and as long as she didn't squeeze too tight he didn't mind being held. What she didn't like, but what he loved to do, was to turn into black water and dribbled through her fingers when he wanted down.

Aryll glared down at the puddle with bright yellow eyes and those eyes looked innocently back up at her.

"Bad Twee! You're supposed t' _ask_ and then I'm supposed to put you down. That's the "right" way to do it!"

Those yellow eyes chased themselves around in a circle, and then they looked up her and nearly doubled in size.

"Twoooo!"

And with that cry Twee shrank down, became flatter then the shallowest of puddles, he became somehow both darker and lighter than his solid form. Then Twee was neither liquid nor solid, he was shadow on the floor, a shadow that had two glowing yellow eyes. He darted across the floor, almost faster than Aryll could follow, and then drifted by her shadow.

Then her shadow and the shadowy Twee streamed out under a crack of the cell and left the room.

When he came back a little later, his eyes filled with a hurt wonder. Aryl fumbled with the door knob and Twee's dull yellow eyes brightened. He pooled, darkened, and the shadow seeped out from the cracks of the floor and became liquid. With a few "to"s Twee slithered up the bar of the cage and went right _into_ the lock.

A few moments Twee slithered out, fell onto the floor with a "plop" sound and then looked up at her.

She reached out, tried the door… and it opened!

"Twee!"

And with that he melted into the stone and darted ahead. Aryll tip toed past the guards, and then once out of the room ran after the little shadow that was taking her shadow and trying to get away.

X

"To tooo!" Came the familiar if somewhat mocking call. Aryll grinned, and went after it. She snuck past another big fat pig guard that was so busy eating that it didn't notice that a not so empty barrel with small little legs strolled right on by.

"To too!"

Once out of the light Aryll lowered her arms and the barrel settled around her. Getting on her tip toes she reached up, found the small nicks in the barrel and put her fingers in those. One push, and a somewhat noisy clatter, and off came the lid. Smiling she climbed out of the barrel and had to wonder just how dumb the big pig things were. There were lots of these barrels everywhere!

From the darkness up ahead there came a teasing "to too!" and Aryll giggled and ran after Twee. Sometimes she caught glimpse of her shadow, other times a glimpse of yellow, after running for a long time she managed to catch up with Twee and scoop up the little creature in her hands. Twee chirped, rolled onto a ball and rocked back and forth in her hands. Her shadow ghosted back to where it belonged, and Aryll smiled and patted the happy chu-chu.

"You! What _you_ do here, hyrule-she!"

Aryll turned, and dropped Twee with a gasp. A pig creature a little taller then her, snarled. It was an ugly pea green, wearing only a pair of ragged red pants, and it had a mouthful of twisted yellow teeth. In its hands it held a huge knife, and Aryll stepped back in fear as the knife's sharp end was pointed at her.

"Well…" Aryll tried to think fast. "What are _you_ doing here?"

The creature's pebbly grey eyes crinkled up.

"Me no stupid Moblin, she-thing. You 'post ta be in cage!"

"Well I didn't want to be in the cage so I got out." Aryll snapped.

"Heh… funny." The creature drooled. "Me betc'ah you taste good..."

Aryll staggered back, cringed from the knife that was raised to cut her into bite-sized pig bits…

Twee had other ideas however.

"TO!"

In less then a second he'd rolled himself into a small black ball and threw himself at the small pig thing's feet.

"Ouch, _glarsp ruk_!"

"TO!"

Twee charged into the other foot and Aryll was ready to run. Then she saw the yellow light of a lantern bearing big pig monster…

"Me chuck you in stew little worm eating whiner, come out piggy…"

Whimpering the green "piggy" put his hands over his eyes.

"Look what do! You get me in stew now!" The green pig squealed. "Me no wanna be in stew, me know me taste bad!"

Looking at the whimpering whining creature before her, Aryll thought of the other girls. How when the pigs would say something about the stew they would start shaking and crying. She reached out and took one of his four fingered hands in her own and gave a tug. Dumbly he looked at her, his huge floppy ears hung limp at the sides of its head.

"Come on!"

"Me come? But me say me eat y-"

"Come _on_!" Aryll hissed, she ran back to the barrel, if they were lucky they'd both fit inside or…

She skidded to a stop, just on the edge of a lantern's light. The big blue pig had its back to her and was sniffing around the barrel. Snapping a hand over the small green pig's snout to muffle his scream she turned and ran. Light was coming up the hall and with that big pig behind them they were caught… unless.

Seeing where her eyes went the green pig squealed and Aryll gave him a long look.

The green pig snapped its hands over its snout, sparing her the trouble.

"Me no climb good." The pig whispered after he had loosened his grip on his snout.

"Do you want to go in a stew?"

"No, bleh, me hate carrots!"

Aryll giggled and Twee stared at them both from the shadows, his eyes a dull yellow hue.

"We're gunna go outside for a little, Twee. Could you tell me when the other pigs are gone?"

"To…"

Taking that confused noise as a "yes" Aryll ran to the window and pushed it open. The wood shutter thumped loudly and the Outsetter climbed up and then turned offering the green pig a hand. The pig looked almost as confused as Twee sounded.

"Come on, I don't wanna go in the stew and you don't want to either!" Aryll whispered. "Anything's better than the stew, even outside with that bad bird!"

The pig's ears perked up and it took her hand in its own. She pulled it after her and on the small ledge that ran across what looked like to be every window on this floor they clung dug their fingers into the stone wall and held their breath.

Almost as an afterthought the green pig wormed its long (not curly!) black tail around and nudged the wooden shutter closed.


	8. Hunting for the Wizard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Yeah, the word Long Spear uses is supposed to be jammed like that, he's talking very fast, but then Ganon is rather ticked in that scene. Clarvos and Kaun's emphasis on "he" is deliberate (it's not proper grammar wise but it's deliberate as is Worm-Eaters mangled speech.) Finally… the plots moving, whose, well there's a lot going on so I'll leave you guys to guess. Some mature humor btw… Clarvos learns when to keep his snout shut the hard way. And that's it for the chapter really, enjoy guys.

Chapter 8

Song of the Seagulls

Hunting for a wizard

They stopped in one of the rooms that weren't rooms but round room like places with doors leading everywhere. The wooden torches sputtered above them and Twee hovered in the shadows and watched them all with his bright yellow eyes. Aryll decided now was a good time, and wormed out the leash that the green pig had put on her for his "Big Idea".

"Big Idea no work now…" The small pig creature grumbled.

"I don't wanna wear a leash!"

After a quick "I'm not wearing it", "You too are!" fight Aryll just handed the creature back it's leash and the green monster sighed and wound the rope around his belly like some overlong belt.

"What if Moblins come?" The green pig grunted.

"Then we run." Aryll answered.

"We in big puddle of chu-chu muck now."

"To!"

"Oh stop being such a grouch, Twee."

"Twe too…"

"That shadow chu-chu, not a twee."

"I know that." Aryll huffed, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at the creature that was –unlike everything else here- her size. "I'm not dumb or something! Twee, is his name!"

"It name Twee, Twee no he."

"Huh?" Aryll looked into those yellow eyes. "You're not a boy?"

The golden eyes only chased themselves around and became a dull yellow.

"Me no think it know what "boy" be."

"Twee's not dumb, he's really smart!"

"Slime smart? Ha! You funny, little Hyrule-she."

"Little… I'm taller then you!"

The grey eyes blinked as the creature thought about it. Then they grew wet and driblets of water fell from the corners of its eyes.

"Why you mean to me?"

"I didn't mean to be mean…" Aryll said weakly.

The green pig began to bawl.

X

"WHAT!" Thunder roared, smashed into the ocean and the once cloudless sky grew dark and murky in a heartbeat. Lightning flickered ominously across the bellies of the newly made clouds and the Moblin clan chief, elected to be messenger to their Lord, gulped, and took a step back.

"Guards… say… cell opened… little she gone…"

"HOW!" The black robed man roared.

"Me no know! _Nokillmepleasemehavepiglets_!"

Taking a deep breath the Dark Lord reined his anger and glared at the sniveling pile of blubber and claw that was groveling at his feet.

"Why are you here?" Ganondorf whispered. His voice soft as silk, a deranged sociopathic calm had descended upon him. While exuding a statues worth of motion his orange eyes were a bloody red. "Shouldn't you be running back to your clan and making sure that they are hunting for the escaped child? While you're at it, rouse the Wolfos packs, the Miniblins _knals_ , and Mokoblin clans as well. If you must turn this Fortress upside down and shake it out to find the girl, then bring her _here_. She and I have _much_ to discuss."

"Yes Sire…" The Moblin whimpered, still sprawled on the floor he crept towards the door.

"Long-Spear." The Master's voice was just a touch rebuking. "The longer you stay here the more I find I crave fried ham…"

The Moblin picked himself off of the orange rugged floor and ran.

X

"What!" Kaun howled, staring at his pack mate in total shock.

"One of the she's of the Hylain pack escaped the Master's cell and He's dragging everyone out to hunt her. She's a sneaky one to get out of the Master's clutches like that. All the other puppies didn't see a thing, and now everyone has to look for her."

Kaun nodded, and with some effort managed to get his jaws to click closed. Clarvos looked at him then lolled his tongue out, and patted him on the shoulder with a fore-paw.

"I know." The Wolfos' speech was garbled a little by the tongue, but then Clarvos always lolled his tongue out over something so Kaun was used to it. "My face looked just like yours did when that Miniblin started tap dancing on my armor to wake me up and sang to me what he was told. I've no idea what the world is coming to _kin-klar_ but we just do as we're ordered. Singing Miniblins…" The young Wolfos shook his head and let out a bark and began to walk off.

In the dark Kaun's red eyes went dull, the flame behind them flickered, and then the fire intensified as a thought came to him.

"Clarvos, pass the word around all the Packs, full armor for everyone. This she pup must be dangerous if she evaded His grasp."

"Yes, revered _kin-klavok_." Clarvos flashed him a fang filled smile.

"I'm serious." Kaun growled.

"Aye, Wolfkaunos, _kin-klavok, sehawdow-kenite_ , so am I."

"Then act it for once." Wolfkaunos' tongue lolled out ever so slightly despite himself.

"But I am… can't you tell Wolfkaun-" Clarvos whined, and rubbed his snout on the closed door he'd just padded into. "Stupid place to put a door…" Nursing his snout in his paws Clarvos turned his bright green eyes at his elder's direction. "That tail better _not_ be wagging, or I'll order everyone to strip nude while they hunt."

"Me? Din guide you and fair hunting."

"Aye, fair hunting."

In the shadows, the robes that hung over his lower back quivered as he firmly tried and failed to suppress his tail's wagging.

X

Long Spear grunted, scratched at his bulging belly and rubbed his father's aged spear for good luck. Once, long before the Dark One had come seeping out of the seas like a wave of rotten algae his Father and Grand-father and all his ancestors had ruled this island. They had been the strongest, the most powerful pirates in the entire world and every creature, the pink things, the bird things, they had lived in fear and that time had been good. The strong had eaten their fill and had destroyed what their whim willed.

Now they no longer had that, the dog things had come with the Dark One, and they did not like wild kills and raids. The smaller pig things had whined at the Dark One's feet and the Dark One had listened to them and protected them, and therefore the Moblins no longer had their slaves...

All that was right, all that was good was gone now that the Dark One had come.

The Dark One then shouldn't stay, that was agreed. The Dark One was wrong and therefore he should go. So his father had waited like his grandfather and all his ancestors it seemed, they had waited and had died in waiting and the Dark One grew younger instead of older.

The Dark One fed off their death, off their dying and aging and made himself young, it wasn't _right_!

It was wrong, just like everything else about the Dark One was wrong!

Like the words to some stupid she called Din. Like his words of a land below the sea. Crazed, and stupid, and wrong, that was the Dark One's truth.

Yet he, the great wielder of the never breaking spear, _Lonov Gerem Spear_ , he must climb up stairs and hurt his hooves to grovel at that things unhooved feet to go on a hunt! Then be told not to kill that which he hunted, it was wrongness!

He looked down at the gleaming heads of his clan. They were shaven, he being leader was allowed to grow his bristly stiff mane, and he did so and looked down upon them when he could.

Because he was better than them, Kings were not to look at the dirt as did their subjects.

"We hunt, little she that not in cell." He boomed in a roaring voice that carried across the shadow choked dens of his people and made the walls quake. "We hunt, we kill. Eat or throw body to shark, Master no care. Stay away from dogs, traitors, make sure they no see you kill and eat."

And with those last words, they knew that the _true_ Master had spoken.

He rapped the butt of his spear against the stones; the responding clack of spear on stone was thunderous.

X

Light down one hall, clinking down the next, they had run around for what felt like to be hours evading the light and from the clinks. They ran from the hollow laughter, the squeals and grunts. Twee looked up at them, his yellow eyes tiny yet intense as Mokoblin and Outsetter were bent over double gasping.

"Side… hurt…" The green pig wheezed.

"Me too…" Aryll admitted then dredged up a grin. "Better then stew."

"Not much." The creature grunted, curling its lip back to flash her a bit of fang. "But better…"

They had had little time for crying, for anything after the halls seemed to explode with monsters of all types.

She was learning a lot of names from her companion though.

Miniblins laughed and danced, Mokoblins (at this the green pig had swelled with pride) were smart and sneaky, Moblins were fat and stupid but strong, and Wolfos'… well he hadn't known anything about them since they didn't linger long with any outside their clans.

So when they weren't running Aryll told him what little she knew about the dog people who wore red shells over their bodies and the Mokoblin –when they dared talk which was becoming rarer and rarer- told him about herself and a little about who she'd met.

"Stop now, no talk?"

Aryll only nodded and they both lay down for a little on the icy stone. Aryll almost wished it was ice, her throat burned and she was thirsty. She flopped onto her back and stared numbly at the dark ceiling, and then felt something wet but not-wet rub against her leg. A clinking from down the hall told her what he was hearing.

"I'm up…" She moaned and then patted Twee on the head. "Good Twee…"

"Twee."

And though her chirped it was a soft chirp, so he knew how much danger they were in too… She pushed off the ground and staggered to her feet.

"Come on…" She moved to shake the Mokoblin awake, but then stopped herself. He was a pig, and maybe he didn't need to run like she did. He didn't stick out, he had a snout and a tail and they wouldn't run after him if she wasn't there.

"Goodbye." Aryll whispered, and it was then she realized she'd never learned his name. She turned on her heel and ran away from the clinks that told her a metal shell Wolfos was coming.

X

"Long hunt…" Kaun grunted, running his claws through his sea slicked mane. But manes got sea slicked when you were poking around the dock for hours at a time. "Too long."

"You're just getting fat and old..."

Kaun snarled and smashed his fist into the younger Wolfos' helmet and Clarvos winced under the hit. Not one to be slowed by one hit, Clarvos opened his snout again.

"Red chu-chu chewer."

Clarvos staggered under the hit to his shoulder for that back hand compliment and whimpered as the dangerous fist clenched again.

"No not again, you're young and beautiful and the Shes adore you and want you to have their puppies… happy now?"

"Hardly-" Kaun's ears slicked back and he unclenched his fist. "-and I already had a mate."

"Oh." For once the tongue wasn't lolled, and then an evil glint flickered in those green fire eyes. "Was it fun?"

The last hit that ultimately ended the conversation was strong enough to lay Clarvos Foreverbark out onto the floor even though he was in full plate armor, and it dented the helmet nicely. Licking the blood off his knuckles Wolfkaunos sighed. It wouldn't do to leave Clarvos out in the open like this, and there were Moblins about…

"If I were as old as you think half pup I'd leave you here because I had no choice." Wolfkaunos grunted as he lifted the six hundred pound bundle of Wolfos in full armor with one paw. Lanterns flickered in the halls ahead and Wolfkaunos growled. "Luckily for you I am not."

Burdened he could not chase after a flighty she pup, so he wasn't even going to pretend he was anymore. He would just drag his friend back to his den then catch up on some much needed sleep. After dropping and prying Clarvos out of his armor he dragged himself to his own den and decided that, yes, some sleep would be good. He shed his armor, put on his black robes, and went to the only walled off section of his den to _get_ that sleep.

His plans though were interrupted by a nasty shock.

The she pup that –if rumor held true- the _Master… Himself_ was hunting looked up at him and twinkled two fingers.

"Hi, Wolfkaunos!"

He stared dumbly at the she pup who he had been watching only a day before.

"You're supposed to say " _Hi, Aryll._ "" She informed him calmly.

"What are you doing here?!" Wolfkaunos yelped, his red eyes wide in horror.

"Twee opened the door of my cell and we played shadow chase… then lotsa stuff happened and… well now everyone's running around like their tails are on fire."

Despite his building panic Wolfkaunos noted the hint of pride in her voice when she used his words to nicely describe what could only be called the greatest security breech in Forsaken Fortress' long history.

"Anyway… could I stay here tonight, pleeease?"

Wolfkaunos put a paw over his eyes to blot out the sight of the girl's puppy eyes and whined.

 _What in Din's name have I done to deserve this_?

"Are you hurt, is something wrong?"

His lip curled back and he let out a sharp bark.

"Just tell me what happened. How did you get out at night…?" He listened then mentally moaned, thinking of the look on his Master's face when he reported _this_.

"You got the keys and just walked out?"

"No, Twee opened the door and I got out."

"And who's Twee?"

Aryll pointed to the shadows behind him and Wolfkaunos turned and was about to start a lecture the girl about how she should be old enough not to believe in shadow friends when he saw the small little yellow eyes look up at him.

"A… shadow chu chu…" His voice was so numb he hardly recognized it as his own.

"Tweee!"

"Yep. I think Twee's a he, but some short green pig called Twee an it though. Do you know, if he's a he or an it?" Aryll queered, looking up at him with wide utterly guileless black eyes.

"The pot… that was the chu-chu wasn't it?"

"Yep, Twee's really smart huh?"

"You aren't a magi?" Wolfkaunos managed.

"I don't even know what it is." Aryll admitted with a shrug.

"Din's tits… I'm going to be a pelt on the wall, just like my father… I know it." Wolfkaunos whimpered. "Do you know what you've done?"

"Was it bad?" Aryll asked.

"Was it _bad_? _Yes, it was_ **bad**!" Wolfkaunos shrieked. "We're both going to be skinned alive if you're caught!"

"That sounds really bad." The child said sagely. "But I can't keep running forever."

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Wolfkaunos moaned, tugging on his mane. "If He finds out you aren't a wizard then we'll both be killed now…"

"Well what do wizards do? I mean, maybe I am one and no one will get in trouble!"

"Well… uhh…" Wolfkaunos tried to think fast, he'd only heard stories after all… Perhaps the she-Hylain was right. "They can cause fire where there is none, and appear, and disappear, and make things happen around them that are strange, make other lesser creatures appear…"

"I can crab wrangle really good." Aryll suggested brightly. "And Twee can turn into a shadow; does that make us a wizard then?"

Wolfkaunos blinked, not following.

"If he does one thing and I do another then maybe when we're together we count as a wizard." Aryll pressed.

Wolfkaunos' ears perked up as a thought came to him.

"You know, it just might…" He said quietly. "Go to sleep on my bed pup, I think it would be wise if you slept and I thought on the matter."

"Alright!" Aryll then closed her eyes and then in less than a heartbeat was asleep. Wolfkaunos flashed a bit of fang, amazing to think that such a small fur less she-pup had caused so many problems all in one night. Yawning he sat on the edge of his bed, leaned back against the wall while sitting and tried the think, to plan…

But his treacherous eyes go the better of him. Without his consent they slid closed and sitting up, his head lolled back and his tongue lolled out, he began to snore. Sometime during the night Aryll rolled over and rested her head in Wolfkaunos' open paw, from the dark corner of the room Twee watched it all. His eyes were a brilliant gold, and then they dimmed at he felt that the sun was to rise soon. He slithered under the bed and went to sleep and the only sign that he had been there was a small grey stone, small enough to be easily hid in a child's hand.


	9. Crab Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A dark room and dumb minions... I couldn't resist.

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 9

Crab "Magic"

 

It was amazing, when you put two heads together what you got. His ancestors had scorned the hunting rituals of the non fanged or clawed. His ancestors had missed many opportunities he discovered as he listened and talked to the non clawed creature before him. Her wits were quick, gasping dreams and setting them before him and he trimmed them down to reality and then they built and planed and it was an interesting contraption they came up with. Complicated, so complicated that not even the Master himself could think that a mere Wolfos could dream of it, its complexity gave them safety. The Master was greater then them, but perhaps that greatness would blind him, in the end it was their only prayer for living through this.

"Could you sneak me to the beach?" The pup had asked after he'd nudged her awake with his snout. Upon awakening she had cuddled even more around his paw and seemed to like his palm as a place to rest her head.

"No, knowing the Master the various packs are still hunting for you. You've managed to tweak his mane, little one, and he is not pleased."

"Good." Aryll growled, thought the sound was more of a squeak then anything else. It amazed him how fierce she was -something without fangs or claws should not look that stubborn and dangerous!- and his ears slicked back just a little. "Fairs fair, he tweaked me for bringing me here now he gets a turn."

"If you saw Him, in all His Dark Glory, you would beg for forgiveness." Wolfkaunos said, though not with the certainty he would have had once before.

"But I haven't done anything wrong yet Wolfkaunos!"

"You've broken every rule, first off, you're not supposed to be out of your cell, second, you aren't supposed to be in my quarters, and third hylians and Dark Ones aren't supposed to even talk to each other."

"Those are little rules Wolfkaunos, when you get in trouble you're supposed to break the really big ones not just all the little ones."

Wolfkaunos closed his eyes.

"Just think of it, all those mean pigs with mad crabs on their heads…" Aryll giggled.

"Oh… I am." Wolfkaunos chuckled. "I am."

"Have you ever crab wrangled before?" She asked in her most innocent pup tone.

"Mm… no, can't say I have." Wolfkaunos yawned, and to her credit she wasn't at all bothered be the sight of his mouth less than an inch in front of her face, going as wide as it could then closing with an audible "snap". "It's not hard by the sound of it. I can't imagine anything a Hylian pup doing as being too difficult for me to do."

"Oh it's really easy, but the claws hurt if they pinch you."

"I'm a big Wolfos, I think I can take care of myself."

X

He howled the first time he was pinched, instinct made him crouch down and bite the creature that hurt him, and his teeth smashed down on shell… and the shell didn't crack under his fangs. And the claws… the ripped out his fur and pinched his nose… his poor nose…

He brought the first one in under his cloak and Aryll had taken from it, tied up the claws with some of the fishing line he stole and then looked up at him.

"Nine more should work fine."

_Nine… nine!_

She pup eyed him and down he went with little more than a whine. At the docks he spent a long moment just _glaring_ at the water, trying to convey all the hate he felt for it, and everything in it, and make it obey him. But if that worked… well then the Master would have dried up the oceans long long ago. A snip, click, clack, sound caught his attention. He turned, stared at the large crate filled with at least thirty long, clawed things that were a rust red color. They had claws, and the constant snipping of those claws showed them to be an ill-tempered sort of animal, they looked hard, and nasty. Perhaps they would work…

X

"Those aren't crabs." She protested.

"They'll have to work." Wolfkaunos growled, he sounded grouchy for some reason. "Because these… things are all that's on hand.

"There's a lot of them…" Aryll protested. "Do you think we can tie them up in time?"

The lobsters clicked evilly and again Wolfkaunos closed his eyes. He thought of lobsters falling on the Long-Spear pack, and a grin curled his lips back and showed all his fangs.

"Oh yes, it shouldn't be any trouble at all."

He growled deep in his chest and the she-pup looked at him strangely.

"When Twee wakes up I'll talk to him." She said, absently patting the chu-chu shaped rock that had been under the bed.

This was part of the plan he didn't like, having to rely on that piece of sludge to play a large role, but what other choice did he have?

None of course, unless he was to turn upon the pup, grab her by the scruff, then drag her to the Master.

He recalled the face of the other she-pups that had seen the Master. The dull, dead, eyes… the pale faces that were lined with tears... it was as if all passion had been drained from them, all will…

It wasn't an option. He'd no sooner send one of his own pups up those stairs to confront the Master than he'd send the she-pup Aryll. He reached up, scratched at the under of his long lower jaw as he absently reached for his helmet.

"Wolfkaunos… is something wrong?"

"If this doesn't work," he said, refusing to look at the pup. "You'll have to fight the guards and run to the docks. Take a row boat and the map I've left on the table by the ship with the ripped up sails then you'll have to try to get to an island nearby and hope there are others of your type there."

"What if there aren't?"

"Then rest on the beach of whatever island you find and then keep going when you are able to."

It was little more than a suicide hunt of course. He might as well tell her to jump from the highest spire and trust the oceans to take her home. Perhaps he should just say that. But so many things could go wrong, the bird could come, the Moblins could catch her… and if they did, then what? He put on his helmet and tried not to think about it too hard, after all, he wasn't supposed to think, just obey the Master and don't think...

_Thinking eats you alive, you kill and hunt, and that's it. Thinking eats at the strength till all you have left are bones, you don't think, you don't plan, you just do and are._

His Sire had said that, so had his Dam.

Yet there he went, thinking again… It was hard not to think, a time consuming process. But it kept the nibbling fangs of guilt from picking apart his bones. And anything was better than that.

"I need to push some swine around and drag some snouts in the muck to make my point; I'll be back in a bit."

"Alright." Aryll looked at the lobsters wearily. "Where did you get them from anyways?"

"I just emptied one of those big lobster traps they had on the dock."

"Oh, that was really smart Wolfkaunos." Aryll smiled at him and he let out a dry bark. He had to admit, when a thought was a good thought it was a pleasant thing to know that it was. As far as he could remember the she-pup was the only one to tell him that his thoughts were good ones.

Another reason to keep the Master from snatching her up he supposed.

"Get to tying; I'll be back soon if Din wills it."

"If you see your wife, tell her I say hi."

Wolfkaunos winced, but the bulk of his armor and the flowing red cloak he had tossed over his shoulders hid the motion.

X

It was worth it. Blowing out those torches, tying up the strings in the dark and hanging those things from the end of the overhanging stairs, every barked knuckle, every scratch, every smudge of dirt on his cape, every moment spent making that trap… It was all worth it.

The next guards had –of course- moved to light the torches but the shadow chu-chu damped the light, Aryll had walked in and casually strolled to her cell and while everyone was fighting to light torches Twee had been damping them and playing with shadows. When the Moblins, Mokoblins, and others of his pack had become panicked he had bravely volunteered to go up the spire stair in the dark and find the Master. If his sword had been hanging out of its sheath by half an inch and if that miniscule amount was enough to cut some wire while he ran up… well what of it?

He wished he could have seen the lobsters drop, it must have been beautiful, but had duty to attend to. He charged up the steps, ran past the nest of the Helmaroc King, charged past the winding path, and it was at the threshold he paused. After taking a deep breath he reached out, and with his four digit sporting paws and grasped the bronze plated door knob. It was an emergency, he like all his kin, had right to step over ceremony. The Master had commanded it long long ago…

If the Master forgot, or saw though this for a heartbeat, he was dead.

So be it.

X

"Twee…" It was little more then a hiss, Twee slithered into her shadow and then his eyes winked out. All around the room torches were being lit, she leaned against the pillar and tried to look tough like Wolfkaunos had suggested. She glared up at the pigs, the dog things, and they glared right on back. Then she looked down, and leery of more lobsters coming out of the floor they looked down and there was more then one scream as pig, dog, and small pig people found that their shadows weren't right.

They panicked, running around like a bunch of pigs let out of the pen, and what was maybe the funniest was the pig that smacked her with his spear had a mouse's shadow.

"Good job Twee." She giggled.

"Twe tweee!" He chirped, somehow hiding in her shadow.

With all the yelling it was noisy enough so that no one heard Twee's loud chirp.

X

"Master-" Wolfkaunos made a stiff bob of his head, his ears were slicked back in the darkness of his helm, and his tail had curled into a tight little ball as he felt those burning red eyes lock on him. "-we've found her… There's going to be a full blooded riot in the cell room if something isn't done."

"Explain." The Master's voice was a soft hiss against his ears, and reminded the Wolfos of the fires in which –if tales were to be believe- would lick at the flesh of the impious and treacherous.

"The she-pup, the Hylian girl, she cast a spell. It is pure chaos in the room my lord, _something_ must be done."

"Have your clan restore order, I have other pursuits…"

"Begging your pardon, Master, but my _pack_ cannot restore order." Wolfkaunos bristled, as if his kind would stoop to the level of mere clan hood like the pigs did. "They're still hunting the she-pup."

Those red eyes flashed dangerously.

"Defiance during a time when my patience is most certainly spent, you are brave Kaun, very brave."

"Defiance only when it is needful Sire." Wolfkaunos licked his fangs. "I have pack mates down there and the second those pigs get _any_ leash off of them they go for my kinds throat in a heartbeat."

The Master only looked at him, it was a long brooding look and as the seconds trickled by Wolfkaunos realized something, the Master wasn't going to do anything. Anger tinted the edges of his vision red and he bared all his fangs in a snarl.

"I won't let that happen, and if you're content to sit and watch a blood bath from this room then I'll go down there and do something about it on my own."

And to his horror the Master bared all his fangs in a horrible empty smile.

"Then why are you here? Shouldn't you be heading back down to do something?"

Wolfkaunos jolted, his armor clanked around him and he stared at his Lord, eyes wide in shock at his Lord's next words.

"After all, you started it, didn't you? At the very least, you helped it along, don't come crawling to me with your mistakes Kaun, I only tend to my own."

The Dark Knight stared dumbly at his Lord, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

Turning his back to his visitor Ganondorf eased himself back into his chair, absently pouring some sort of liquid into a bowl.

Not going to just… _stand_ there like some lack witted pig while his Master had his supper. He snapped his jaws closed, and then turned on his heel.

"When you're done restoring order I'd like a word with you."

Kaun's stomach writhed in absolute terror; he could almost feel the bile rising in his throat.

X

"Halt!"

Everyone stopped running around screaming at the thunderous voice. Whimpering in terror the small pig people collapsed on their bellies and whimpered, the large pigs glared up at the stairs, and the other red shell dog people growled.

"The Master has spoken to me. The enchantment is easy to break. And the creatures-" Wolfkaunos' bark sounded a little strained. "-were they not easily vanquished?"

The dogs all around her nodded while the pigs just glared at Wolfkaunos, who was clanking down the steps.

"Just damp all the torches, wait a few moments, and relight them. All shadows should return to their proper owners when we stand in the dark for a span."

"What of the she-thing?" One of the big pigs snarled, Aryll noted that it had hair, unlike all the other pigs in the room, and it was almost taller than Wolfkaunos.

"Leave it alone, we treat it… with respect. We don't scare it, or hurt it. The reason… this happened was because it was scared and angry."

The small pig things shrank back from her in terror, the large ones looked to the maned pig.

"I say we kill it." It snarled. "It little, weak, die fast."

"That's not our orders."

"Not _your_ orders, I no see Master here, I see _you_."

Wolfkaunos' red eyes flared, and Aryll and everyone else –even the girls in the cell- cringed from those eyes.

"The Master is everywhere Long Spear, and if I were you –which I thank Din I am not ever Din birth- I would better guard my words."

" _Knarl spawn rak_!" The pig snarled, drawing its spear from its belt it charged up the steps.

Faster than she could blink, Aryll saw Wolfkaunos draw his sword, block the overhand chop of the spear with the long red jagged weapon he used then clench his free hand. One punch later Long Spear went flying, he smashed into the wall and then staggered down the steps. Stagger became trip, and he rolled down for half a turn of the winding wood steps before landing on the grey stone floor.

"Put her in the cell, _nicely_." Wolfkaunos snarled. "Then someone damp those lights."

Wolfos and Mokoblin scrambled to fill those orders; the Moblins though looked at their battered leader.

" _Jark uk_."

One of the large blue pigs went and picked up the hurt pig.

"We wait, nice for now." The bruised pig hissed. "Someday Master rip you in half, I get big laugh when I watch."

"That day is a long way from now slop eater, a long way."

"Not _that_ long."

Wolfkaunos shrugged, and then darkness filled the room. Aryll felt Twee brush by her leg, once when he left, once when he came back.

"I… I think I fixed it."

"No… red snip claws?" Came a whiny, high pitched, voice.

"No, no red snip claws." Aryll said weakly.

"You promise?" Came another pathetic sounding voice.

"Yes I promise, unless you're mean, then I'll make a lot of red snip things come."

"Someone just light a damned torch already!" A voice too deep to even be Wolfkaunos' voice rumbled.

Then there was another growl, even deeper than the thing's voice.

"Someone's missing his supper."

"Shut up Barol!"

"Ouch… something hit me!"

"That was me bird wit." Rasped a big pig.

"Eek, something by me leg!"

"That's my tail…"

"Oh… you sure?"

"No… no sure…"

"That bad?"

"Much bad."

There was a long silence.

"So... who light torch again?"

A chorus of high pitched "not me's!" came from around the room.

"Shrimp pigs worth _nothing_." Rasped one of the big pigs.

"We kill?"

"Not till Master say "now you kill shrimps" klav spawn."

"Silence!" Wolfkaunos roared. "I'll light the damned torch."

Grumbling a lot of bad words Wolfkaunos tromped down the stairs, there was a loud ear shattering "clanka, chinka, crash" sound and then even more bad words.

"Someone… else… light the torch…" Wolfkaunos grunted. "'Everbark, give me a hand up…"

"Oh for the seas sake…" Aryll huffed. She walked to the edge of the cell and reached out. After some fumbling she knocked the unlit torched over then reached around and picked up a rock that was in her cell. Smacking the smaller rock (hoping it wasn't Twee taking a nap) against the wall she got some sparks to land on the torch.

"There…" She coughed. "Someone take this… please?"

A clawed hand snatched the torch out of her own, and then when the room was filed with light everyone had their shadows back.

Pig and dog people tromped out of the room, relief on ever snout er face… and out of the corner of her eye she saw in one of the few remaining shadows a pair of yellow eyes glittering and watching everyone leave.

Then with an evil "twee-eh-eh" the eyes winked out and the chu-chu was gone.

"Wolf-"

Wolfkaunos made a pained grunt, and looked back up the stairs.

"I've got to go she-pup. Rest well."

"But…"

He was going up the stairs; Aryll sighed and wasn't too surprised when a few pig voices cried out that their shadows were gone.


	10. One Defience

Chapter 10

One defiance is much like another

 

"Should I fall on my sword?" Wolfkaunos mused. "Or should I go in and let the Master skin me alive?"

Decisions, decisions, while falling on his sword certainly had merits going inside _would_ satiate that demonic entity known as curiosity that he had never quite shed after pup-hood. Life had taught him that curious pups were cute and curious adults were dangerous. That those possessed with curiosity generally got killed by the Master or by their own flaw. Sometimes by both if they were particularly unlucky, and the few souls that actually were killed by the Master tended to scream for days. He spared a glance at the sword on his belt, really considered falling on it, if he blotched the attempt (which was highly improbable as he was something of an expert in ripping things open with his sword) an hour would pass before he died, if the Master's humor was particularly foul a week would pass before he died. None of his clan would blame him, others had killed themselves after committing an act that would garner their Lord's displeasure, and to kill ones self was honorable in that and a pawfull of other situations. After the death of one's mate, after the death of one's pups, after the death of the members of one's pack, the coming of old age, or annoying one's pack leader…

Or in this case, annoying the Master.

Still his curiosity nibbled at him, as did his infernal thinking, only his caution kept him frozen in place from acting on either option.

"Perhaps… the master won't be _that_ mad?" He whimpered.

But then cold knowledge of what he had done came back to him with the force of a sword in a gut. He had taken up his Master's name in vain, had given false orders to his pack and the various other creatures that had been in the room, he had helped a Hylian she-pup fool everyone, tried to deceive his Lord.

Was caught mid deception… oh sweet Din he _was_ doomed.

He whimpered, but even as he whimpered he could hear a small little corner of him, a small very puppy part of him howling in laughter when he saw that Long-Spear's shadow had been a mouse.

Curiosity and that puppy part of his brain made him walk across the bridge that bound the Helmaroc King's nest and clink up to the wooden path that was wrapped around the side of that misplaced ship. Perched on one of the anchors that hung from the various mess of poles and rope that jutted out from the long trunk that ran form the top of the was a serpentine necked black bird. It stared at him with its dull orange eyes and he snarled.

"You swoop and I will have you _as_ dinner."

Of course assuming he was going to live to see dinner, or rather breakfast. He yawned, stared at the sinking sliver of silver that was the dying moon. It was amazing how tangled and intricate thinking could be; if he ever got within his Lord's good graces again perhaps he should ask to have what made him think removed.

"Kree…" The bird's wings fanned out and Wolfkaunos drew his sword.

Perhaps seeing the five feet of steel in Wolfkaunos' paws made the stupid bird think, because it stared at him, stared at the sword, and then it fluttered off. Its ugly laughing "hreee" trailed behind it like its gaudy golden tail feathers, and after a few moments Wolfkaunos sheathed his sword.

"Stupid bird." He growled, flexing his paws.

X

Wings swept back, he dove, alongside was a tower. It raced by even as he raced by it, the stones were little more than a grey blur due to the speed. A glint of golden firelight made him flare his wings. Wind filled his wings, his whole body jerked, his neck snapped up violently, causing tears to form in his slited orange eyes.

"Scree!"

Still he pulled up, flapped, and the window that he'd shot right past loomed above him like a miniature dawn. His long eyes squinted up, and he blinked back the tears born of wind and light. Fluttering through the open window he clenched his talons along the earthen frame and stared down the winding wooden stairs. He watch, dispassionately as a spear wielding pig kin stomped, shaking his weapon and scaring the smaller Bokoblin that was wearily sharing the patrol with it's distant Moblin kindred.

"If me there me kill little she runt."

"Master say no kill little she's…" The smaller green hued creature sighed with the air of someone who had repeated themselves far too often.

The larger pig only grunted to itself.

"Long Spear dumb, you ask me, dumb dumb, makin' Master mad like that. Him go in stew if he no… erk!" The creature froze as the Moblin pressed the tip of its spear against the smaller beings throat.

"You watch tongue piglet, or me cut it out."

Satisfied that the smaller creature was properly cowed the larger continued withdrew its spear and went back to climbing up the stairs. Rubbing a thin bead of red from its throat the Bokoblin snarled and clenched its paws a few times.

"No kill stupid Moblin 'till Master say "kill Moblin… no kill stupid Moblin till master _say_ …" The creature growled to itself. "Master damn well say kill soon or me kill _kvark_ spawn Sharp Tusk sooner then Master say kill, then me in big pile of chu-chu muck then…"

Orange eyes glittered, blinked then as soon as the smaller creature passed the window midnight hued wings fanned out. With a slight rocking of the slender legs the lesser Kragaroc thrust his wings down sharply and loosed his grip on his perch. One flap, two, he cleared the window and lazily spiraled down the abyss that was the space untouched by stair, wall, and spanned between the long hike between floor and tower top. A long block of wood, the top of the cage, was far below and he lazily alongside the steps, the tips of his black wings rushing the wood from time to time.

Glints of silver, threads of fishing wire caught his eye. And the second he gazed upon them they immolated, he left a small trail of smoldering wire behind him, but a little ash where torches were abundant would cause no questions.

"Hree!"

He folded his wings and landed on the grate with a small thump, his talons easily finding hold on the mess of water slicked rods.

He stared into the cell, twelve little children lay, their clothes were in taters, a mess of long pointed ears peeked out from the various heads of hair. Brown, red, most were blonde though, all came from different islands, from different lives. All those lives had been ripped asunder by a dark shadow and a pair of gleaming talons. He stared as the red haired child shivered from the cold, one of the blonde haired girls awoke at the sound.

Or perhaps she hadn't been asleep at all.

She shivered, her clothes were wet, her eyes were tired, and she looked right through him and stared at the other girl who was shaking even in sleep.

Slowly she walked to the bars of the cage, and then rapped on them sharply. The snoring Mokoblin guard opened one yellow eye.

"Whats you wantes?"

"Could we have blankets… please… the waters were really co-"

"No. Lay down, shut up."

With a whimper the girl did as ordered, though he saw the hint of wetness in her eyes and did not miss the thin trails of water running down the child's cheeks.

They paid him no heed, the guard went back to sleep, the girl eventually fell into a fitful slumber. And he walked the _ting_ of his talons striking rod with each step ran out with a cheer that ill suited this place of holding. Every high tide the waters must rise from the grate, the floors were kept clean that way, but the prisoners were soaked, denied blankets, warmth, they might very well sicken and die.

He watched, for a long moment, stared at the various styles of dresses (all adorned with filth) and stared into the face of each child. He looked to the darkest corner; away from the other children saw an outcast. He stared into that sleeping face for a long moment, blinked once, then opened wide his wings. Only a small rain of black feathers that fell from his wings as he clawed his way back up the winding path marked that he'd even been there.

X

"Enter."

Licking his fangs, unaware that he whimpered, Wolfkaunos reached out to grasp the door handle, it swung open at his touch and he walked into the Master's den. It was a place of fire, torches burned from everyplace not marred with wooden cubbies filled with page holding leather skinned contraptions or curtains. He hardly noticed the softness of the various orange rugs that made a mess of shapes here and there, or the red painted markings that ran across the walls.

In a slow and reverent manner he knelt at the feet of the being that had created him. His tail pressed against the floor, his face no longer masked by the darkness of his helm was against the wood in the ultimate show of submission.

"Once you said you would never bow to me, never in surrender, never live in servitude, this hour you make a liar out of yourself Kaun."

Wolfkaunos blinked, looked up and to his shock saw that his lord was not in some great rage or in a clam before a rage. Not seeing his lord in some state of anger surprised Wolfkaunos so much that he blurted the first thing that came to his mind.

"I don't understand your meaning, my Lord."

"You defied me, you handled a situation that you caused with grace, in that you made yourself an adult, yet by this show, you are still little more then a child."

Anger licked at Wolfkaunos' reason, he lifted his head and growled.

"The one who holds the key of creation can easily wield the blade of destruction."

And those ember eyes looked into his own, the face as still as an obsidian wall, only the eyes moved and the flickered with an intensity that made him lick at his fangs.

"Any fool can hold a sword Kaun, any fool can end a life if he swings the blade just right."

Kaun stared at his Lord, his mind not comprehending…

"Watch him."

"Who, my lord?"

"Long Spear, I want you to watch him. Now get out."

That was it -Watch Long Spear, get out- that _was_ it? His mouth sagged open, as the thought came home. No torture sessions, no screaming death, one order, and that was _it_?

Certainly he had misheard something, his ears must be broken, his wits scrambled by the fall down the stairs…

"Why are you still here?" The voice was soft, silken, a threat.

"Be- because… I do not understand my Lord. I understand your words, yet I do not understand the thought behind them."

"Comprehension of my thought is not necessary." The Master hissed.

"Some comprehension…" Wolfkaunos whimpered. "Would allow me to serve you better, my Lord…"

Those orange eyes met his own, he resisted the urge to loll out his tongue and whimper in pure terror, and then the Master turned and lifted one arm. Lost in the black fabric of sleeve Wolfkaunos could not help but note that his Master's arm looked much like a wing… From the darkness came a small red eyed bird, it landed easily on the Master's arm as if it were meant to be there, the Master met the creature's eyes and it jerked spasmodically then went very still.

"Ten years ago, twenty, my empire was firm, the foundation unshakeable, yet the foundation crumbles before my eyes. Tonight's… show was a hint of how far it has fallen. In times of old once child could not have terrified and demoralized my soldiers no mater her skills as an actor, none of my own would have allied themselves with a creature not of their own. The fire of your unified hate has dampened, and the smoke of old battle fields is clearing away, and the steel blade that I had meant to forge is in pieces."

Still Wolfkaunos did not understand, the Master only petted the black bird then flicked his eyes upon him.

"Get up Wolfkaunos, do as your Master has ordered, leave all confusing thought behind and just obey. It's all you're capable of anyways."

Nodding, miserable, Wolfkaunos scrambled to his paws, stood…

"The Hylian, you are relieved from watching her, this assignment takes all precedence over the others."

Wolfkaunos opened his snout, a pathetic whine came from him, no unlike the sound he'd made when a Foreverback pup kicked him in the stomach when he was still a pup himself.

"Pawns do not have minds Wolfkaunos, your will is my will, defy me ever again and you will spend eternity screaming from the hell fires I summon."

Bowing low Wolfkaunos turned to the door, as he pulled it open with a trembling paw he heard the master hiss something to the bird, just one word, but it made him flinch in his armor.

"Pathetic."

X

Aryll shivered, stare at the large pigs that had replaced the dog people that had been their guards, their task makers. They were hit with the staves a lot and it hurt. She whimpered, curled into a ball and tried not to listen to them drool over little girl stew. She wanted Wolfkaunos back, she liked to dog people, and even the smaller pig people would be better then the Moblins.

"I want to go home… I want to be home…" She whimpered, holding herself while the girls around her slept and the guards got ready to nap. "I don't want to be here."

Well… if she wanted to go home… wouldn't the first thing to do would be to get outside the cell? She stared at the guards, they were asleep, but Twee hadn't been by tonight and he probably wasn't going to be with her all the time. She whipped at her eyes; tip toed to the door and then pulled on the handle. It opened, but Twee hadn't opened it or they hadn't locked it after Twee had opened it last time…

Not saying a word she crept out of the cell, closed the door behind her, and then sneaked her way past the guards.

X

_Pawns do not have minds… you will do my will_

Wolfkaunos snarled, smashed his fist into the unyielding grey wall. Frustration roared through him with the intensity of a fire storm, he had been given orders and he had failed. Night after night he had hunted for information, for some way to watch or hear and again and again he was thwarted. _That_ was where his frustration was born from, that could be the only place…

_Pawns do not have minds…._

It would be the only place that he allowed that frustration to stem, it would be the only place he would think of and perhaps the rest of the thoughts would go silent. The silence would be a blessing, the endless picking fangs of his curiosity would cease…

_Pawns…_

"Wolfkaunos?"

He whirled, stared at the she-pup and she looked up at him. He didn't quite understand the glint in her eyes, didn't understand. In that his master was right, he was a puppy, because he didn't understand he would forever remain a puppy.

He stared at her, his rage worn out, his knuckles bloody. She had once more sneaked out of her cage, had once more come to his den. He greeted that information numbly, only looked at her and waited.

"Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine." He growled. "You're out again." He noted.

"You're bleeding." She pointed to his paw and he sighed, unclenched his fist and leaned against the stone that had a faint hint of his blood on it.

"She pup… what are you doing outside, again?"

"I didn't want to be in the cage again tonight." She yawned and he closed his eyes.

"Go back inside when you want to then, I'm busy."

"I came to say… good bye."

His eyes flared open at her words.

"I'm going home."

Then he closed his eyes.

"Thank you for telling me, but I doubt you'll be heading home anytime soon. Not with all the ocean between you and your home."

The she pup looked at him in horror, so she hadn't known…

"We are pawns." Wolfkaunos snarled. "Both of us."

And the look on her face, stubborn defiance, told him louder then words what she thought of his –to her, at least - most strange pronouncement.

"I'm not a… whatever you call it, I don't even know what it is, but all I know is I'm not it. I'm not any it; I'm not any kind of it. I'm me, and that's all I need to know."

Wolfkaunos stared at her.

"And you aren't an "it" either, I don't know who this he of yours is but like Grandma would say, he sounds like the type that has a barbed anchor up the butt."

Wolfkaunos made a rasping bark sound, and he stared at her in shock, awaiting the lightning bolt that should come out of the sky and incinerate her. He awaited some painful death to fall on the she before him, he waited for a long moment, and then when nothing happened he was almost so shocked that he lost all speech.

"He is not very… ah nice as you'd put it."

"He wasn't very nice; after all he took me away from home." She pointed out firmly. "Does that sound nice?"

"No, it doesn't." He said slowly.

He smelt the iron, the hint of blood, the aroma that she'd smelled of after cleaning after the seagulls…

So this was defiance against the Master, it smelled the same to him as any other defiance.

"So-" she looked up at him, her dark eyes wide. "-why listen to him?"

_Because he made me, and all before me. He took the Wolfos race, a pack of savage creatures not too unlike rabid dogs, and he made them into what I am. He allowed us to walk, upon two legs instead of four, he enhanced our intelligence, gave us steel weapons, and the Hylians who once hunted us we could now hunt them… To hunt, kill, avenge our fallen mates, our cubs skinned and tortured only to be turned to pelts for some noble woman's cloak…_

_To not listen to Him… would be unlike deafening one's ear to Din's voice, to gouging one's eyes out to avoid looking upon the sun. Blasphemy and beyond blasphemy would it be to defy, to ignore, Him in all his Dark Glory._

"It's complicated…" He brought his paw to his snout and licked at the blood. "Very complicated."

"When we grow up, we're supposed to be brave, like heroes in the stories. That's part of being grown up, being brave, and sometimes being brave means saying no to scary people and doing what's right."

Wolfkaunos stared at the she-pup, suddenly struck by how small she was. If she stood upon the tips of her clawless hind paws she could not have reached his waist. He must loom over her, hell… everything but that shadow chu-chu was bigger than she was. It struck him, how brave she was then. He, a large and powerful Wolfos, cringed from one Master, she should have been cringing from the world. She did not, she ignored all her would be masters, had done so even to say good bye.

She had done what she thought was right, saying good bye was a nicety, at least to him, but to her it must have been right. Because she had defied them all to do it, for her to say two simple words she might very well be killed.

Not so long as he had any say.

"Come on, I'm taking you to my Den."

She looked at him, her wide eyes lost in confusion.

"You aren't going back in that… cage." He growled. "I'm going to do as the Master says and do what I want all at once."

He offered her his gauntleted paw and she took it in her clawless hand.

"Kree!"

The she Islander Aryll started at the sound and Wolfkaunos bared his fangs in a grin.

"It's just a bird she... er Aryll… Ignore it."

"It's a nasty sounding bird." She noted.

"Most of the Master's pets are nasty." Wolfkaunos grunted. He looked up and stared at the orange eyed bird that was perched in a nearby window. "That one," The Dark Knight pointed to the orange eyed eavesdropper. "-is the nastiest of the lot."

The bird stared at the clawed hand pointed at it and blinked. Then the bird snaked its head around to peck at his finger.

"Stupid _klavk_ spawn!" The Wolfos roared. He swiped at it, claws fully extended. The creature let out a mocking "scree!" and fluttered off to a small ledge just out of Wolfkaunos' reach. Letting out a growl he padded down the hall, the she pup still holding his paw.

"Did it hurt you?" Aryll asked as they walked.

"The steel blocked the hit, but you have to hit those things sometimes to remind them not to do it."

"Oh."

And as they walked, going deeper into Forsken, above them whispered the black wings, and it seemed from ever corner, from every crevice that claws could sink into and wings could bare it's inky body orange eyes gleaned and followed.


	11. What Fire Eyes Have Seen

Chapter 11

 

What Fire Eyes Have Seen

"You're tall, so you can't hide good." Aryll noted. "I don't want to be mean, but you kinda stick out."

Wolfkaunos lolled out his tongue in what Aryll thought of as a kinda dog laugh and she hear his tail thumping on the backless bench he'd set for himself. She sat on a chair that he'd stolen from one of the smaller pig's rooms. While she didn't like that he had stolen she hadn't protested since she really didn't want to sit on the brown stained bench with him. Perched upon the edge of the table, its long neck weaving this way and that was the orange eyed bird. It would stare at her, stare at Wolfkaunos, and just sit there and not blink. At first it had scared her a little, it acted like no bird Aryll could think of, but now she was almost used to it.

"That's Din's own truth." The Dark Knight grunted.

"And… well you can't duck behind furniture, or hide in the dark, and well… you rattle when you walk."

"I get the point, so I can't do as my Master ordered; I have to get used to that I guess. Not doing as the master ordered I mean. I can't do it when I disagree, I can't do it when it's impossible, and I can't go whining and falling on my sword when things turn out like that."

"What's fall on your sword? It sounds kinda silly. I mean if you trip when you're holding it maybe you shouldn't run when you hold your sword."

The dogish face twisted, and the ears slicked back. "Never mind Aryll… just… never mind…"

"Weeell…" Aryll frowned looking around the room and drumming her feet against the wooden legs of her chair. "You can't do that, but maybe I can."

"Surrounded by guards, day in day out, the master keeping me away from you at sword point?" Wolfkaunos barked. "That will be quite a trick. How do you propose to get away?"

Aryll wiggled her finger and Wolfkaunos let out a few of barks.

"I'll Twee the lock."

"Ah, the chu-chu, well that works…"

"I can get out, probably every night." Aryll continued confidently. "And I can hide under stuff and sneak without clanking, and if I get caught they'll just throw me back in the cell."

Wolfkaunos nodded, rubbed his snout, and then scratched at the long patch of fur that dangled from his lower jaws.

"What during the span of Din's life?"

"The pigs are watching me; I'll listen to them while I work. If we're quiet no one cares if we're around."

"Those watching you are the lowest of the pack, the younglings, the invalids, not the leaders. I doubt you'd hear anything useful."

"I guess not." Aryll lowered her head into her hands, her eyes once again going around the room, as if an idea would pop out of the darkness like a shadow chu-chu.

Wolfkaunos scratched at his lower jaw a little harder, then fisting one paw he perched his snout on it.

"And… I don't want you with them, they've hurt you enough."

Aryll smiled, it was a pained smile that made her look years older than she was.

"You can't stop them, Wolfkaunos, I can't either, it’s just part of this Place that's not Home."

Wolfkaunos' ears slicked back, he whined.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." Aryll patted his big furry paw.

Time trickled by, in the caves that ran under Forsaken where the Wolfos lived there was no light save torches. Sometimes, past the curtained expanse that was Wolfkaunos' door she could hear the jingle of another Dark Knight, other times she heard a bark or a howl echo from the darkness. It could have been scary if she was scared of the Wolfoses, but she wasn't. The pigs scared her, the pigs who talked of throwing smaller pig people and Islanders into stews. That scared her more than claws and teeth and barks, though why one thing scared her more than another thing she wasn't too sure about.

"I wish Stugeon was here, he'd figure it out in a jiffy." Aryll sighed, staring at the darkness and wondered where Twee was.

"My own Sire could have this solved in two shakes of a tail." The Wolfos growled.

"It's not fair, when you need help and no one's there to help, it's just not fair." Aryll snapped. " _You_ could offer something you know!"

"Pup, who are you talking t-"

"Him!" Aryll pointed to the bird, which just stared at her finger and blinked. "He could probably think up lots but he hasn't said a thing."

"Aryll… it… er…" The bird's bright eyes glinted and the beak snapped open and closed. "He can't talk."

"I know! That's why it's not fair!" Aryll huffed, glaring at the bird.

So greatly was the bird moved by her announcement that he actually blinked and then began to preen his wing.

"We can't solve all the world's problems… or my problems in one day." Wolfkaunos stood. "I need to go out and talk to my pack leader. Stay inside; if anyone asks or comes in tell them I'm following the Master's orders in keeping you here. You'll be left alone."

"Are you?"

"Does it matter?"

Aryll only looked at him in confusion and Wolfkaunos let out a gust sigh and patted her head.

"Just... wait for me to get back and stay here. You're very bad at listening when the word "stay" comes into a sentence. This is what… the third time you've done this?"

"Second." Aryll grinned. "But there'll be a third, maybe a fourth and a fifth."

Wolfkaunos barked. "I can imagine."

The bird cawed and Aryll laughed.

As he left the Wolfos had to wonder, just how long Aryll would actually "stay". He gave her less than ten minutes to wander outside once he was gone.

X

Wolfkaunos had little to fear, as Aryll swiftly found something to entertain herself and keep her in the cave. Although the object of her entertainment probably strongly wished that she'd go play with a deranged floor master or something. Clanking back into his Den Wolfkaunos stared at the she-pup, stared at the poor Kragaroc, and had to wonder, where in Din's name did she find ribbons in Forsaken?

"Awwk!"

Never had a bird come so close to screaming " _save me_ " before.

"Oh stop being such a baby." Aryll cooed, her lips curled into a wide smile. "Come on down Fire Eyes!"

"Awk!"

Clinging to the ceiling -orange eyes wide in fear- the lesser Kragaroc was doing a good Keese impersonation. As he looked at Aryll, armed with a fistful of red ribbons, he decided that perhaps traumatized –not horrified- was the best word to describe the poor creature's face.

"Screee!"

"Pup, enough, where did you get that ribbon anyways?"

"I just found some red cloth lying around so I made some ribbons from it."

Red… cloth… his blood turned to ice and he all but ran to the small bones he'd smashed into his wall so he'd have a place to hang his assortment of red capes. He stared at one cape, saw that it was shorter and whined. Why did that have to be his favorite cape… why? He whirled, rage flashed in his eyes, she might no be his pup but by Din it was his place to punish her for destroying something that rested in his territory…

She looked at him, not understanding why his ears were swerved to the sides or why his tail was stiff behind him. Before he could even clench his paws and give her a sharp rap between the ears (or rather on the top of her head, her ears were in the wrong spot to deliver a proper scolding) she said something that took the wind from the billowing sails of his temper.

"I figured it out."

He paused, swearing that he was going to punish her _after_ she talked; nothing she said would make him not punish her. Even if she puppy eyed him she was in a lot of trouble for...

"Pears."

He blinked.

"Pears, there's a story about how once long ago my people learned to use pears to talk to seagulls. I guess they were special or something, anyway since seagulls are everywhere all I have to do is talk to them and we'll know everything that goes on."

"Pears." Wolfkaunos said slowly.

"Well special pears, we have seagull flying races and stuff with the Rito every year and I'm the best in Outset. I'm too little to go to Dragon Roost and fly there but if you had some pears here I could try it."

"Alright then." The Dark Knight decided that later he'd rap her, for doing something else; she'd do something else later anyways if he knew her at all. "What is a pear?"

"It's fruit."

Gritting his fangs Wolfkaunos took a deep breath and ordered himself not to growl.

"What's fruit?"

"It's yellow, you eat it."

"You _eat_ yellow meat?" Wolfkaunos nearly gagged at the image.

"No. no it's not meat, its fruit, part of a tree."

"You eat trees?" Wolfkaunos shuddered at the thought.

"Well parts of them, nuts, berries, fruit, seeds." Aryll was looking at him, all innocent.

He once -out of sheer boredom- had gotten a branch of a tree and chewed on it. Old Wolfoses –before the master had changed them- had chewed on branches, and he'd been curious. The taste, the grainy texture, remembering it and the smell his stomach writhed.

He turned on his heel and went for the flap that blocked his Den from the world.

"Wolfkaunos."

"I feel sick; I'm going to be outside."

X

Seeing his opportunity the Kragaroc spread his wings and went for the door. In his haste to fly away the Kragaroc nearly ripped the black fabric from its resting place. Screeching while it flew, the dark feathered creature blazed past the violently ill Wolfos, clawed his way up the winding path and then when it was out of the caves flapped to the nearest window.

Free at last he screeched in joy, and then nearly crashed into the wall of the nearby tower. Fanning his wings the creature pulled itself to a stop scan inches from the wall. Pulling his wings to his body he whirled in the air so that he turned away. Stretch his wings to their fullest and brought them up and down with a series of violent flaps that made him seem to jump away from the tower. Up he sailed, catching the occasional thermal, the errant breeze, and then he turned, glided over the nest of the Helmaroc King and curling one wing he pealed away from the nest, dove down then seeing the wide window flared his wings and shot into the room. A few flaps to kill the speed of his dive, he reached out, found a talon hold upon one of the spears that adorned the wall. Slowly, his bright orange eyes gleaming with feral intensity he swerved his head around, peering at the fire lit darkness that filled the room.

Satisfied that it was empty he jumped from his perch, drew his wings about him…

Pain not too dissimilar to fire took him as bones lengthened, thickened. A choked cry crawled from his throat, tangled and became a meaningless gargle as it met its end in a mouth that was both beak and lip. With an audible crack his knees, legs, turned full cycle, now that they were bent the right way he fell upon them, lay gasping out curses as feathers fell from his skin and he swelled past the bonds of that pathetic, weak, avian form. Shaking, he curled into himself, feeling internal twins as organs shifted, changed, and then when the last spasm of pain passed he dared to open his eyes. Eyes once orange were a fiery red, but then even Din's forging flames left his blood, and they settled into their customary bright orange hue.

Alone, for none dared yet to invade his sanctuary against the King's curse, Ganondorf could have lain on the cool wooden floors and rested. Had he been a Hylian he might have indulged in weeping, the pathetic past time of shedding water over every slight, ever pain, but he was not Hylian. He had no means of weeping; the device that allowed Hylian's to weep was vacant in his eyes. Still, tears denied him; he could indulge in sleep…

Pride made him grit his teeth and drag himself to his feet. Using the wall as a prop he stood, glared into the damning light that he must let into his quarters for him to have any form of freedom. He staggered to the window, reaching out with shaking hands to grab the frame before he toppled out.

His falling, his dying, that would please Long-Spear, it would please him greatly, make his easy task easier.

He stared numbly at his kingdom… Kingdom, he snarled, recalled the King's words as the sea fell between them, the damning waters stealing from his eyes even as it stole from the people the land of Hyrule.

" _So you craved a Kingdom, so you claimed it you destiny, you will have it. You will have the shattered pieces of my Kingdom. The most foul, the most tainted, they will flock to your standard. And you will be bound to the earth. Your flesh chained to what vile hole rises from the earth. Your form will reside in the darkest spire that claws at heaven, the home of your flesh will be the place of greatest desecration, of ugliness. Fly away Dragos Dragmire Ganondorf-" Eyes flashing with the power of the reunited Triforce, Nohanson Daphnes_ _Hyrule raised one hand in mocking benediction, the great Lion ring upon his hand winked down upon the startled Gerudo. "Fly away to find this new home for you, for all eternity, fly away..."_

_Cold as ice, a hand touched him, and to the power of the gods he at last kneeled and screamed as the pain of his rebirth fell upon him._

Reaching out, reaching into the light he grasped the shudders with both hands, slammed them shut and pulled the curtain closed. Though fast, it wasn't fast enough. He stared at his fingers; feathers had sprouted along his digits. Dark as the soul of the guiltiest sinner, they gleamed like oil in the fire light. He clenched his hands, and they fell, drifted down from the floor.

" _Uncle… stop it's not supposed to end this way!"_

" _Silence!"_

_Bewildered, he could only listen and watch as the world ended all around him, his small feathered limb tangled amongst themselves as he tried -and failed- to regain his feet._

_Zelda cried, fell at her Uncle's feet and wept._

" _Child… my child. Allow me to use the Goddess power to send you to slumber..."_

" _No!" Zelda's tears ceased. She took a step away from the king, dressed in all his regal splendor she was dressed –as once before when she had defied him and had posed as a vagabond Shiekian- as the poorest of travelers. She bent down, picked him up, and held him to her. "You are… you can not be yourself. Uncle, please, you can stop this…"_

" _The fate of the world lies in the hands of the Goddesses, this is their decree."_

" _Nayru would never allow this! Never!" She turned and fled, still holding him in her hands._

" _Where is your Hero, Princess? Will he play a little tune; turn the tides of the war with a few notes from his flute?" He rasped; it came out little more then a series of mocking squawks._

_Up they climbed, she stumbled, looked down at him._

" _He died, a beast, one of yours, killed him."_

_He stared, uncomprehending at the trails of water running down her face._

" _I would have known, I did not."_

" _Then it wasn't one of yours that killed Link."_

_She said nothing more, only ran, and he winced at every step that sent jolts through his aching bones. It was a hellishly long climb, the girl stumbled, her grief made her weak, her tears blinded her sight but he endured, having no other choice he endured. She reached the top of one of the towers, and he stared at the skies. Grey, all the waters of the world and even more poured from heaven. Hyrule field was little more then a grey green blur. Precious little green at that, the streets… the poor were staggering up the steps of their capital, the weakest being swept away by the waterfall that had become the steps. He felt her wince as a whole street of homes in a middle class district was washed away only to smash into the walls that cut off the middle city from the lower._

_She cried and he could only watch, not given the solace of weakness, of tears. But the Goddess' had decreed that the Gerudo be strong, so all weakness had been torn from them before they drew their first breath._

" _This can not be the Goddess' command! This can not be!" She screamed, and then she crumpled, against the rail. "This… can… not be…"_

_Yet it was, and he looked to the dead grey skies with burning eyes._

" _I... don't know why… I saved you… but I did…" She whispered. "I'm… going to talk to him, pray that he will listen to wisdom…"_

_He heard her turn, walk away._

_Shivering, miserable in the cold, he looked down and watched as the world died._

_Then opening his wings he threw himself from the tower, and hoped death would take him as well._

X

With insanity to no longer buffer the shear amount of destruction, with madness to no longer shield him from consequence in the morass of chaos that it bred in his soul, he was very much sane when the world had died. All too sane, if such a state was possible. Insanity, even now, would be a solace. It would break the chain of responsibility some sadistic god had slapped over his hands; break the collar of guilt that all but strangled him.

"Din, the Creator, not Nayru of the Cleansing Hands, should not have allowed this. Yet Mortals are greater then the Goddess' when the Three come as One." He leaned back against the throne of bone and fur, his hands clenched on the arm holds. "The Goddess' must be mad to allow this to pass; heaven is not glorious but a broken thing that jibbers and howls as its own illusions fall around its ears."

He closed his eyes, he could indulge in sleep, in that Din was merciful, sleep was not denied him if he needed it. Gathering the last of his strength he stood and on shaking legs staggered to his bed.

Even as the dark behind his eyes stole his vision he saw, just for one moment. The grinning child, tie a red ribbon around his feathered hands.


	12. Piggish

 

Song of Seagulls

_Chapter 12_

Piggish

"Hurry up, she-thing!" Wolfkaunos nudged her and made her stagger forward.

Despite the rough handling Aryll was fighting to keep herself from laughing and ruining Wolfkaunos' Big Plan. The big pigs snorted, looked bored, and Aryll spared a second to grin up at Wolfkaunos. The large Dark Knight flashed a bit of fang then gave her another nudge and she went to the mess of crates and barrels that had been left out for her to look through.

"You, open that one, this task will go faster with some order to it. Open everything in the line, left to right."

"Yes Knight…" One of the pigs, a creature whose face was bruised an ugly purple glared at her. She recognized the pig, as the one she had fought and the fighting had caused them both to fall down the stairs.

The pig had gotten the worst of the fall, she'd only been a little banged up, and he hadn't gotten to his feet after the fall. Scared that he'd recognize her, Aryll started to move a little closer to Wolfkaunos. The flapping of wings right above her made her look up, orange eyes peered down at her for a moment, and then the bird glided over them all. Not even paying the working Mobolins a glance he fluttered over to one of the ships suspended over the water, and found a perch on the suspended ship's rail. Aryll nodded to the bird -who she had almost expected to join them- and was startled when in response he spread his wings and tilted them in her direction… Then she blinked, he had folded his wings to his side and was preening his back. Acting like a normal bird...

"Pup…" Wolfkaunos hissed, and she jolted, aware that all the pigs were staring at her.

Aryll sighed, looked around, and was aware that it wasn't just the pigs who were staring at her. Some of the girls were here to perform their tasks, some were armed with brooms. Most of them held long flat shells that they would use to scrape the undersides of the ships free of algae… Anger, was in their eyes, in every eye, and she didn't like it. Tears wanted to come but she gulped them down, she wouldn't cry, the pigs liked it when she cried.

"If… I had wings I'd fly away from here, I'd go home." She whispered.

Clenching her hands she walked to the barrel, got on her tiptoes to look inside, and tired to ignore how the pig licked his lips as the tantalizing smell of Islander and fruit caught his nostrils and made him drool.

X

It was a lot faster, and it only cost her a bruised arm to get it done in a few moments what would have taken them days. She picked out a few of the right types of pears and a few other fruits and vegetables that looked nice to eat, Wolfkaunos carried it in a sack slung over his shoulders, his other hand hovering over the handle of his sword.

She could still see the pig's eyes glint red; see those hungry eyes lock on her when she was fishing around in the barrel of pears.

"Ya don' need 'isss…" It drooled, snatching at the arm that had been searching. "Ya get two o' 'em…"

Mouth opening wide he's meant to chomp her arm. She had screamed, and Wolfkaunos had shoved past the spear holding pig that had been yelling about how this was his dock and the Dog-faced thing wasn't allowed. Wolfkaunos had snapped the pig person's mouth closed with a clawed hand and kicked it. The pig had screamed –or tried- and then had been shoved into the blue waters below still howling in pain.

She hadn't blamed it, Wolfkaunos had kicked it _there_ and his armor was really spiky looking…

"Your arm still hurting?" Wolfkaunos growled softly, his eyes seemed locked on the hall in front of him, but both ears –and his attention- was fixed on the hall behind them. And the growling mad pigs that they had left behind.

"It's not bad." Aryll blinked, stared at the red mark on her arm. "I've had worse."

"No one trying to eat you I wager." Wolfkaunos grunted, clenching his free paw.

"It's not the first time." Aryll admitted. She walked out of the shadowy hall, onto the side platform. Out into sunlight, she smiled at the stairs that lead down, smiled at the sunlit path that wasn't dark. Whoever made this place really liked it dark, but she liked it light. That island, -maybe landing place was the better word, since that's where the bird had landed a few days ago- that was like a giant step that lead to the winding paths, was special. It was special, because try all it liked, the shadows of the buildings didn't cover it all in shade and darkness.

"You… are very calm for someone who nearly got eaten a few moments before."

"Well it happens a lot here." Aryll said quietly. "The pigs say it all the time, little girl stew is all they talk about, I guess you get used to it."

"The Master ordered them to leave you alone, to not eat you. They shouldn't even talk about it in front of you."

Aryll frowned, and then looked up at Wolfkaunos.

"I think… that when your Master talks… no one listens."

"Only one way to find out." Wolfkaunos snarled. "If they aren't listening…" The red helmet shook from left to right as the knight shook his head. "I can't imagine _not_ listening to the Master."

"I can." Aryll huffed. "He's really mean."

"Oh really?" Wolfkaunos' eyes narrowed, a growl crawled into his tone.

"He took me away from home, that's really mean!"

"Well he gave me and my people a home!" Wolfkauns snarled.

"Well…" Aryll scrunched up her face to think. "He has mean people here, like those big pigs!"

"Is he responsible for how others act?"

"Gran'ma says that people under your roof reflect you!"

"Well… Not everyone here is mean!"

"No, just most of them!"

"You owe him the food he feds you."

"He can have his nasty green stuff on the bread if he wants it back!" Aryll flared.

Wolfkaunos' claws scrapped on the grey stone, and Aryll gritted her teeth and glared up at him. The stand off lasted for a long moment, then Aryll lowered her eyes. She didn't want her friend mad at her, but she knew she was right.

"Well I say he's mean." Aryll huffed. "But you'd never listen to me anyways…"

"He's cold, a little calculating, but under it a good pack leader." Wolfkaunos growled. "He does what's best for the Pack."

There was a flutter of wings and Aryll wasn't too surprised with the black bird with orange eyes landed in the shadows by Wolfkaunos.

"I know, he'll answer it!" Aryll's eyes lit up and she turned to the bird. "Do you think he's mean or not?"

Those bright eyes blinked once, and Aryll heard Wolfkaunos sigh.

"She-pup… it…"

Those unblinking orange eyes locked on Wolfkaunos and the armored creature cringed, though he wasn't quite sure why he did.

"err… _He_ can't talk."

"Dogs can't talk, but you talk." Aryll pointed out.

"Well…" Wolfkaunos set the sack down, opened it and stuck his head inside. "Think about it. Smart things talk, right?"

"And some not smart ones." Aryll added.

Wolfkaunos barked, the sound distorted by the sack.

"Yes, the pigs…" The Wolfos pulled his head out of the canvas bag. "But think. Their heads are big. To talk you need lips, and a tongue, and teeth, and something in your head besides fluff. I've eaten my share of birds, most of their heads are just fluff, and the heads to small to hold anything to talk with or even a brain to _think_ with."

"Awk!"

"Seagulls are smart." Aryll protested.

"Seagulls have bigger heads then that thing." Wolfkaunos pointed at the black bird, which was fluffing his feathers and just glaring. "So asking it a question is really stupid."

"It is not stupid!"

"Yes it is. It's a bird Aryll, not a person!"

"Well…" Aryll thought about it. "He acts smart, sometimes…"

"It… He's a bird, you're just imagining that he's smart, that's all. Puppy's do it all the time."

"But…"

"Its head is _this_ big." Wolfkaunos pinched his thumb to his first digit, giving the black bird –by his estimate- an even smaller head then he really had. "It can't be smart."

"But Fire Eyes _acts_ smart." Aryll muttered.

Lolling out his tongue, hearing the sound of defeat in the she pups voice, Wolfkaunos perked his ears up, reached out, and patted her head.

"All animals act smart in their home, and the skies of Forsaken are that Helmroc's home."

"Fire Eyes."

"Why must you name everything?" Wolfkaunos sighed. "First the shadow chu-chu, now the bird. Will you be naming the mice, or the stones, or how about the Master, would you like to give him a new name?"

"Well I don't like mice." Aryll answered, missing the Dark Knights sarcasm. "I don't think I'd name any of them, unless it was cute! But it seems dumb, naming stones, and why'd I give another name to your Master Meanie anyways?"

Wolfkaunos' ears twitched. "It's Master Ganondorf."

"Ganondork?"

Clamping his teeth together so not to howl with mirth the Knight's tail wagged though, giving away his thoughts.

"No… It's Master _Ganondorf_ …"

"Ganondork sounds better."

Closing his eyes the Wolfos ordered himself not to loll out his tongue.

"Well, I don't know what sounds b- better, but never ever call him by that name. If you ever see him you msut address him as _Master Ganondorf_. He'll do worse than eat you; he'd torture both of us if he caught wind of this."

"Well good thing he isn't here." Aryll giggled. "It's kinda funny, I mean he's all big and mean but he can't do anything if was just sit here and talk about him."

"You're going to get me in trouble." Wolfkaunos's ears slicked back and he whined. "Speaking slander against the Master is highly frowned upon and has gotten others killed."

"If he doesn't hear about it…" Aryll left it hanging.

"I think I have an insight on the pig's minds now…" Wolfkaunos growled. "Act like you obey, then once the Master's back is turned…"

"I'm not a pig."

"Then stop acting like one." Wolfkaunos grunted.

"I'm not acting like one!" Aryll flared. "I'm not one of those… pig people. I don't hurt anyone, even when I am bad! They hurt everyone all the time, me, the smaller pigs, the other girls!"

"Speaking ill of someone is much like hurting them-" Wolfkaunos growled softly. "-even when they can't hear it."

"Is it piggish?" Aryl whispered in a shamed little voice.

"Very piggish." Wolfkaunos growled. His long, dust brown, tail swished out behind him.

"Oh… well umm…" She shifted from foot to foot looking embarrassed; before the Knight could say anything to make her feel better she turned to the Master's Den.

" **I DIDN'T MEAN TO CALL YOU GANNONDORK, I'M SORRY!** "

"Are you rabid?" Wolfkaunos shrieked. "The whole _FORTRESS_ heard that!"

"Did I do something wrong? I just said I was sorry."

Wolfkaunos' eyes went wide, his ears slicked back so that they all but disappeared in his mane, his tail curled into a ball, and he whined.

"I'm going to be a pelt on the wall… I can just see the Master sharpening the skinning knife right now…" Burying his face in his paws Wolfkaunos only muttered that to himself over and over again.

Baffled, Aryll walked up to the Knight and tapped Wolfkaunos on his armored side. Getting no response she went to the sack and opened it, and pulled out an apple.

"I guess I should try to be nicer to him, but he wasn't nice to me." Aryll muttered as she sat in the shade. "I mean he took me away from my Big Brother, and Gran'ma, and home, that wasn't nice… was it?"

She looked to the orange eyed bird, who was just staring at the yellow apple in her hand.

Absently she dug her nails into the snack, ripped off a bit of skin and pulp and set it on the ground besides her. As she bit into the side of the fruit she was aware of something small and black waddling in her direction.

She bit into the apple, aware that the black bird had dipped his head down and was nibbling on the soft fruit she'd set aside for him.

"I wasn't acting all that piggish, was I?"

In response the bird snaked his head around and snapped his beak sharply at her.

"Well fine, be all mean." Aryll sniffed. "I could not share you know!"

As the bird ruffled his feathers Aryll laughed.

"Oh don't be such a fluff head." She ripped off some more of the apple and put it between them. "I didn't mean it. Here."

The bird stared at her, at her hands (almost as if to check as if she didn't have any ribbons secreted away) then shifted just a little bit closer and took the piece of fruit in his beak and nibbled on it.

"I don't care, I think you're smart, and I like your eyes, there pretty. You don't mind do you, me calling you Fire Eyes?"

The black bird only tilted his head to the side and stared at her with his unblinking orange eyes.

"I mean… I really don't want to be piggish, and naming you something you don't like would be just like the pigs."

With a dry caw to serve as some mysterious reply the bird opened his wings and flew off.


	13. Close call

Chapter 13

Close call

 

They couldn't do it that day, the big blue pigs came and Wolfkaunos had hid the sack and they had walked back towards the tower that held the big seagull cage. He said they didn't dare try again; he didn't want the pigs to know. So wishing her goodnight and put her in the cell and as an afterthought \handed her one of the bananas and went on his way.  Lingering only long enough to make sure she ate it rather than any of the other rabid looking she’s and to take away the peel.  Early that morning, when the pigs had come to take them, he had been there, and had taken her to the grey island within an island where they had chased seagull feathers.

"You have to make some pretense of doing something." He growled.  She hadn’t known what pretense was, had asked, and had protested when he'd given her a broom and ordered her to sweep a few times around the whole grey stone island.  Clearly pretense meant clean stupid things. "If you don't Long-Spear’s ilk may suspect."

As if that made any sense.

She swept, and while he watched her "work" she explained what she was going to do, because he’d asked and it was rude not to explain when someone asked. He teased her for it of course (everyone who'd never been to outset did so until they saw someone from the island taming seagulls) he had little faith in pears, little trust of “yellow meat”.

"Pup you _must_ be insane to think that this will work."

She looked at his red eyes, told him it would work, and said it so firmly that he could do nothing but believe.  Or at least pretend.  So he pretended, and if another Dark Nut had been by they’d of smelled it on his pelt, but she didn’t have a Wolfos nose so she couldn’t smell.  His doubt hung in the air, unspoken yet still there but never noticed. Pear perched on her head, on her hair no less, Aryll turned to the sun. Closing her eyes Aryll kicked off her sandals, and began to dance.

There was something of fluttering, about the feet, something of wings and wind tossed feathers, and little flapping about the arms.  Actually, a lot of flapping.  He nicely didn’t say one word about cucoos but he did wonder what they could do next when this didn’t work.

Some feet away Wolfkaunos snorted, crossed his armored arms in front of his chest and his claws ran out a mocking little ringing run across a hand's length of his breastplate.

She ignored him, ignored the biting cold grey stone, and chanted. She called upon the sea to be gentle and the winds to carry her voice far. Suddenly she stopped; she lifted her offering to the heavens…

There was a flash of white, a harsh cry, and Aryll jerked as a passing seagull ripped the pear from her hands. She wasn't still so much as comatose, and she was a disturbing pale hue. Ears slicked back the Dark Knight pprouched, reached out with a paw to shake the child…  After all, the knocked out usually fell, so she was awake, right?

"Awk!" White wings fluttered inches from his face. Snarling Wolfkaunos lifted a paw to swat the creature aside, and then stopped. He looked past the blur of white wings, saw past the small grey form, and met the creature's eyes.

Liquid night, a warm night, perhaps a summer's eve, alive with curiosity, intelligence, which no seagull could _ever_ possess.

The Dark Knight lowered his paw, stared at the bird, then at the girl, looked back and forth so many times he felt dizzy.

"Cree?"

"You… but you're…" With a shaking paw he pointed to the girl, and the bird laughed. "I… I thought you were going to _turn_ into a seagull!"

Small eyes blinked and Wolfkaunos lifted a paw to scratch at his head. Forgetting that he wore his helm he only scratched at the metal and left some fresh gouges down the back of his horned headpiece.

With a cooing noise the small bird stretched its head and nibbled on a bit of fur that had snaked its way past the confines of his helmet.

And with that the seagull opened its white wings, and with a flap was gone.

Craning his head up, staring after the bird as much as his helm would allow, Wolfkaunos openly gapped. A puppy, a little itty bitty, short puppy had just casually cast a spell whose implications were making his head ring.

Perhaps they were all wrong; perhaps she was a wizard after all.

X

The wind easily picked her up as she opened her wings. The sun warmed the grey stone; swells of heat slipped under her and brought her higher and higher up. She soon was over the grey walls; the ocean was all around, vast endless blue. Squawking at the familiar and cheering sight Aryll wished she could have flown over those walls and gone home. But even if she had flown home she wouldn't have been home, she was still down there sleeping and Wolfkaunos was watching over her. She stretched her small wings as far as they'd go, and dipped the tip of one wing. Slowly she turned, slowly she fell, but when she was turned the right way she began to flap and claw her way up. Higher and higher, the hot waved of air helped her along the way; she glided from one to the other. Looking down the largeness of Forsaken struck her. There were so many rooms, so many paths, stairways, and she was only a small little seagull right now.

Practical, that was the way to do it. She could spend the whole time fluttering from place to place or start from the top and work her way down. She decided to go up and come down, so she circled around and around the largest tower, she flew until the sight of rolling grey stone and the slits of black windows was making her get a little dizzy. Seeing one of those anchors just sitting there, hanging by the ship, Aryll decided now was a nice time for a rest. Tucking both of her wings to her side she reached out with her feet and grabbed the slick metal. Small yellow talons wrapped around the cold metal, and while the idea seemed like a nice one…

A cold, harsh, wind licked up the side of the tower like a giant wave, squawking she opened her wings, fluttered, and tried to tighten her grip. She held on, barely, but when an ominous howl of wing running across stone went off again she jumped off the anchor and decided flying wasn't all that bad.

" _Stupid mean wind, I'm tired_ …"

It came out as "scree scrawk caw!" and if she could have sighed she would have. But beaks weren't made for sighing.

She circled the ship that was on top of a tower, and she had to wonder how it happened. Someone must have really been sailing dumb like for that to happen! Spotting an open window –someone had closed and shuttered all the windows except that one- Aryll fluttered onto the window's edge. She looked into a room so dark she couldn't see her beak in front of her face.

Then she went _flying_ into the room as something big smashed into her and knocked her down. Discordant squawks came from her as she tumbled beak over tail feathers off the ledge and fell onto the floor with a moan. Her wings spread out, her beak brushing against the grain of the wooden floor. She made a noise of pain and her eyes weakly fluttered open.

Something large loomed over her, confused she tried to roll over, to see what it was, but all she managed was to flap her wings and stir a bit of dust bunnies that were under a large looming wooden desk. Something hard, sharp, pressed against her right wing.

She screeched in pain, turned her head and looked into two blazing eyes.

She looked into two eyes, two fire filled eyes.

X

Iron, blood, the smell made his ears perk and his nostrils flare to better take in the tantalizing scent. He whirled, then, realizing the source. The she-pup, Aryll… she was bleeding! He reached out with a paw to shake her awake. Her eyes flared open, unseeing or perhaps seeing something far away. When she spoke her voice was little more than a whisper.

"N..no don't… don't it's-"

X

 _"-it's not right… I have to stay_ …"

Fiery eyes blinked, and then the long neck swept down so she was beak to beak with the larger bird.

"Have to stay… just a little longer."

The large black bird's dull yellow beak opened, orange eyes had widened with shock at her first words, then sharpened, grew intent. The beak snapped shut and the talons loosened. She hurt, her wing hurt. Despite that she found her talons and tucked her wings to her side. He was twice her height, dark, large, and in the shadows he somehow seemed larger than even that.

Shaking, she lowered he head, tried to back up and almost tripped on her seagull feet. With a surreal gentleness something nudged her beak, her eyes opened wide and she found herself looking Fire Eyes in the eyes.

His beak opened, but before he could do anything a door opened, then slammed shut.

A giant entered, vast, impossibly large, his very foot falls made the ground shake, the things ragged breath was like thunder. Terror took her, opening her wings she ignored the pain and went for the nearest window. There was a hiss, she flared her wings and stopped less then a feather's width from flying into the quivering spear. And from behind, the thunder spoke.

"HEH HEH, MASTER NO HERE, BUT LITTLE BIRDS IS… ME NO LET LITTLE BIRDS FLY AWAY, ME STICK BIRDS IN STEW."

Ears ringing, Aryll shot up, fluttering above the mountain large pig thing, her wings brushed the ceiling, and she turned, desperately looked around for a window that was not closed or barred with a spear.

Knife in hand the blue pig walked towards Fire Eyes, drool sliding across the overhanging tusks.

Hissing, Fire Eyes snapped his beak, flared his wings, and then jumped back as the monstrously large pig lunged. When the pig person backed up, a large span of his snout was dripping red.

"KLAVK SPAWK I'LL CRUSH Y-"

Eyes darting around the room wildly Aryll circled around and around. Then her eyes fell upon the desk, and though seagulls couldn't smile she did. With a cry she shot over the wooden mesa. Her wing strokes sent pieces of parchment as large as she to flight, and it was in that confusing storm of paper and dust that she reached down with her feet. Feeling something in her talons she tilted her wings and barely managed to turn around in time to avoid smashing into the grey wall.

"Kree!"

With a flurry of black feathers Fire Eyes rose from the floor, his talons extended, leaving thin lines of red along every inch of Moblin he could reach.

" _Duck!_ "

The serpentine head bowed low, pecked at the snout one last time… Aryll flapped right at the blue pig shaped mountain, let lose the burden and then landed on the floor. Above her, behind her, the Moblin roared, rubbed at his eyes and staggered about making what seemed to be the whole world shake with the violence of his cries. Black shot over her, there was a click, and the beast staggered into the door. The door opened under the creature's weight. Fire Eyes let go of the door knob and they both black and white winged birds spread wide their wings and flew into the welcoming blue skies.

X

Gasping, panting in rage Long Spear whipped at his eyes, whipped away the black sludge that had gotten into his eyes and picked out bits of the clay inkpot from his snout. _Mas kvill, masi colli_ , _uiss,_ the insults rang in his head and made him rage. Roaring out a word in an unknown tongue he mimed clenching his paw around the shaft of his spear. With a flash of light his spear disappeared out of the place it had sunk into the wall, it then reappeared in his paws. Snarling a vile oath he cast the weapon after the fleeing birds.

If fell short of its mark, but even as it fell he grunted in satisfaction. With it went the worst of his rage, the most destructive of it was felled.

And that, for now, was enough.

Snapping his claws he clenched his hand and the spear came back to him, he looked upon the destruction he had wrecked, that those things had _made_ him wreck. The so-called-Master would threaten, the so-called-Master would hurt him, but that would be all.

He would not be killed for this, and if he heard that his death would come to pass because of this, he would find a way out of it. There always was a way out.

As for where the Dark One was, and the birds… he would think about it for a time. Answers would come, perhaps an answer that would tell him everything all at once. Those answers were best, and he had a feeling in his gut that to answer one he would answer the other, and as all Moblin's knew, the gut never lied.

X

The world was grey, blurred, each wing beat hurt, and now that her heart wasn't going "thump thump thump thump!" as fast as it could she felt tired and the hurt. Closing her eyes she drifted, then came back, her right arm hurting, a large (but not "mountain" large, just "tall" large) red thing loomed over her.

Numbly she looked at her right arm, which was hurting more then her left. She stared at the small red line that ran from elbow to wrist and then looked up at Wolfkaunos. Tears burned in her eyes, and he knelt, drawing his red cloak around her.

He held her to him, and in his paws she broke down and cried. When she seemed a little better, a little less prone to leaking around the eyes, he scooped her up in his paws.

There was a flutter of black wings, Kaun turned and stared at the black bird with fire hued eyes. At the sight of the bird the she-pup whimpered, cringed back in terror. Kaun growled as he spotted blood on the talons, then with a slowness so not to startle the creature pulled off his helm and glared at the thing, mane bristled, red eyes gleaming.

Cool, uncaring, unimpressed orange eyes were locked on Aryll, it didn't even pay him a moment of it's time to notice...

That was its mistake. Shifting Aryll in his grip so she was cradled on one of his arms he tightened his grip on one of the horns on his helmet. With a growl he threw the dented, scratched up, mass of red steel. Calling down a mess of harsh sounding syllables the bird fluttered off, but then promptly returned to glare at him. It found a perch on the helm, and it flare out its wings in some show of power he supposed.

He snorted, met those intense ember hued orbs with his own blood red eyes.

"Pathetic, you aren't worth my time."

"Hehsss!"

Wolfkaunos laughed at the pathetic thing, turned on his paw and then ignored the indignant cries of the creature behind him, cradled the she-pup to him, and ignored the smell of blood as best he could. He had a few red chu-chus in his den; he'd pull one out and after killing it rub it into the puppies wound. He ran his claws through Aryll hair as he walked, ignoring the stares of the few Mokoblins he ran into on the winding path that would lead to his den.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Important note to my Readers,
> 
> This chapter is ranked //Mature// (only this one and two others will be this dark –outline says it's going to be over twenty chapters- so I'm not bumping up the ranking unless I get a request from a reviewer to do so) ranked for language and gore. Skip the text between the X's, or ask me for an edited version of the chapter if gore and profanity bother you.
> 
> To answer the inevitable questions that will come up. Farore is the "Restless One", Nayru is the "Maiden of the Ice Touch", and I think you can tell who Ganondorf's minion's favor after the chapter's up.

 

Chapter 14

Punishment and Stories

"There,-" Kaun gently wound the red fabric across his patient's long cut. "-that should hold you until I can hunt you some red chu-chus tonight."

"Thanks." Aryll murmured.

She was laid out on Wolfkaunos' bed, so small amongst the mess of pale covers, so small when compared to him. She seemed pathetic when hurt, perhaps even more pathetic then a hurt puppy. She smiled though, despite her pain, and he smiled back, again brought to near awe by how small a creature could be so brave. Her eyes were fluttering shut, she had remained awake as long as she could, and it was in that that he knew of her fear. It was in her eyes that he could see the black wings of nightmares hovering about her, could see hints of them reflected in her eyes.

Reaching down with a paw he grieved that he could not take away her nightmares, that he could not help her. Yet nightmares could not fall to the sharp fangs and claws of any rage, they could not be stilled by drawing a blade. Sighing he ran a claw through her small mane that started a few inches above her eyes and spilled down her scalp only to dissolve into a easily tangled mop of dull yellow that obscured the base of her ears and back of her neck. Such a strange creature, no fangs, no claws, it was small, and weak.

He should have scorned, ridiculed the pup that was by no means a true pup.

Yet he could not, not after seeing her take a wound and stubbornly hold on. How many Dark Knights, how many revered Dark Nuts, would have endured a hit and not gone into a rage or lost their concentration due to pain? None that he could think of, probably not even he could have done so.

Watching her sleep he took some comfort in that she wasn't totally alien from him, after all, she did have pointed ears. And she wasn't all that bad, even if she did like to eat parts of… _trees_.

For all it was worth, he might not be able to protect her from nightmares with his claws, but he was more than able of being there when she woke up from them to offer a mane for her eyes to leak into. Setting a paw on her unhurt shoulder Kaun yawned, then decided to entertain himself by trying to find other Wolfosish things about her while she slept.

X

"Enter."

Long-Spear came cringing before his master, as all the times before. But something was different; or rather many things were different. The master was not sitting at ease, he stood, his standing was stiff, his eyes ringed with a darkness darker than his face.

That, and something more, there was a sizzle of… something… under all the stillness.

Long-Spear had seen The One Above angry before, had lived through the Thing’s anger, but it was the bared sword that rested in the Dark One's hand that gave him the most worry. Perhaps he should have sent his brother up here like he had planned, but his gut told him that now was not the time for him to die, and he trusted his gut.

"Come in Long-Spear, make yourself at home. After all, you were not shy of doing so earlier today."

The words were little more than a hiss, flame biting into water and consuming its opposite with spite besides. The creature’s orange eyes flared into a dangerous bloody hue.

"Masser…" He grunted his pebbly eyes wide in feigned innocence. "Me no know what you talk 'bout. Me no up here, but my broth-"

The Dark One laughed, and all the shadows around him shivered in terror at that deep throated sound. Then as sudden as it came, the mirth died, and the unnatural calm took mirth’s place. It was not a mask of non-feeling the dog’s used, after breathing and whimpering about tempers, the Dark One radiated a still horrible calm that only the uneaten dead killed by betrayal showed.

But he lived, and looked dead while doing it, yet burned the world all around without a whit of ash or flick of flame.

Save for those hateful, hellish eyes.

"You are going to try that old trick, aren't you? My brother did it, punish him. How many others would you sacrifice before you let your own blood run across the floor for breaking one of my decrees?"

Shocked Long-Spear stared up at the creature –who if you believe the heathen stories- had made them from simple animals.  The Dark One was casually twirling a long length of steal in his hand.  Smiling a smile that might have encouraged a smile all its own.

But only if you were blind, or stupid, or aching to be dead.

A roll of the wrist, the slight loosening of the fingers, and the blade twirled.  Something base made him watch the gleam, the light off the edge, the other details flicking in his minds like sparks from a blaze.  The orange ribbons tied to the hilt moved in at the minimal wind of a lazy twirl, brushed against the black sleeve of the Dark One's garb.

"You understand; this leaves me at a dilemma. You broke one of my laws, yet you are in a position of great authority."

Fingers so dark a shade of brown they might as well have been black, clenched. The blade stopped its spinning. Fire light stained the edge of the blade a golden yellow, orange ribbon slid off the flowing black cloth, swayed listlessly in the hot windless air.

"Perhaps though-" the Dark One stirred, broke his dead state, recalled he was alive with a slow approach, "- _dilemma_ is too strong a word. You have children after all; killing you wouldn't cause a _complete_ breakdown in the tribal system your kind has established over the centuries."

Not understanding Long-Spear stared; entranced by the golden light that ran along the edge of his would be creator's blade. Gold was the color of power, gold was the color of power, gold gave all power. Not the filthy red of meat, blood, or fire.

"You like the sword?" The Dark One hissed, somehow he was close, very close, less than five steps away. "Its name is Red Rain, enchanted by a Gerudo weapon-wizard, ages before you or even I was born. I earned it after battling the sandworm Ixyakt, as well as earning its mate, Eternal Agony. They are… the anti-thesis… of very singular blade used in Wolfos horror tales."

"Me… no understand."

"I highly doubted that you would."

The Dark One's arm tensed, and then with less than a heartbeat of time for that fact to sink in before the blade stabbed home. Squealing the Moblin chieftain reached out and grabbed at the weapon that was now in his gut. He tried to wench it out, did little more than scream and thrash as the Dark One twisted the weapon and made it go in deeper yet not deep enough to kill. Without changing his expression so much as by a hair Ganondorf dragged the blade down, then with a smooth motion the Gerudo pulled the blade out of the Moblin's belly. He looked down into the gaping wound in Long Spear's belly with an expert eye, and nodded. Still kneeling, or rather curled into a tight ball while on his knees, the Moblin swallowed once, and there was a wet "slosh" sound and the red stain on the carpet grew considerably. Ganondorf only noted the phenomenon with a slight quirking of his lips, while the shaking Long-Spear stared numbly at his misplaced insides.

"Never disobey my orders, ever again."

"You… kill… me…" Blood trickled from the corners of the Moblin's mouth.

Ganondorf laughed, sheathed his bloody sword and looked down at the pitiful creature before him.

"You have a red potion on you, simply put _that_ back where it belongs and pour the potion on the wound."

"F.. Bast…" The Moblin croaked, and watched with dimming eyes as the Dark One calmly sat himself at his desk and picked out a black feather quill pen. Acting oblivious of the wet squishes and various other unpleasant noises that putting one's insides on the inside and keeping them there while a red potion spilled over the gaping wound and knitted it up, entailed, the Gerudo pulled out a small bottle and opened a drawer.

A number of shadow chu-chu's looked at him with dull grey eyes.

He reached down, and the unresponsive monster sat perfectly still as he picked up the knife he'd set aside for such tasks and made a slit in the beast's skin. It didn't scream or do _anything_ but sit there and stare, even as he essentially tortured it to death. He wrung the unresponsive creature so that the insides fell into the ink well and tossed the empty skin aside.

Some stray beam of sunlight would fall upon it and turn it to dust, and he could easily sweep the dust out no matter if he was in his proper form or not.

A moan caught his attention and he looked up from wiping the black ink from his hands. Something large, heavy, was lifting itself from the floor.

"You are dismissed Long Spear, and remember my words when you see my mark upon you for the rest of your days."

There was a strangled gasp on Long-Spear's part. Ganondorf did not look up to watch the Moblin reach out and gingerly touch the long cut that had not closed. That ran from chest to belly and wept red. The wound would always weep red, no matter the amount of potion, of magic poured, into the injury. It might even fester, but if it did so it would be an eternal festering that did not consume beyond the line of red, that burned and did not burn the mind, sanity could break under such a burden...

It came to him then that he would have to kill Long-Spear, not now, now was not the time. But the effects of his blade would make it easier to distinguish between Moblins when the time came for some well-placed and long overdue executions.

X

"What happened to your head shell?" The pup asked upon awakening; her eyes scrunched closed as he applied the now dead chu-chu's innards to the girl's wound.

"My helmet?" Wolfkaunos blinked, the girls strange words to explain his armor were very confusing. "I threw it away."

"Oh…" She made a startled hiss of pain and Wolfkaunos smiled encouragingly, just in case her eyes opened by some off chance.

"There, and done." Wolfkaunos whipped a little red –some of it blood some of it chu-chu- off of the girl's arm with a bit of tattered cloak. "You don't bite; I know I bite when someone treats me with one of those things."

"It's not that bad and you're not supposed ta bite the docter, no matter how bad the medicine tastes, at least that's what Gran'ma says."

"My own Mother would have said the same thing, though "stings" not "tastes" was the main concern."

Aryll rubbed her arm, from the look of her she had never had a chu-chu healing before. He wondered how she normally got better after getting hurt or sick. He decided he didn't really want to know. It probably involved some sort of sick backwards practice, and the first thing that popped into his mind was the image of a sickly hylian pups chewing on the bark of a tree or chewing grass. His stomach writhed and he decided to think about something else.

"What… exactly is a _Gran'ma_."

Aryll stared at him, as if his head were on backwards or his tail had turned furless. He turned, looked over his tail carefully to make sure that wasn't the case. He looked at her in confusion even as she looked at him in a horrified shock.

"You don't have a Gran'ma?"

"Ah, so a Gran'ma is something you own?"

"N... no, a Gran'ma is a Gran'ma."

Ah, and this looked like this was going to be one of those fang gritting conversations…

"That's vague." Wolfkaunos reached up to scratch at his head, for once with no helmet getting in the way the only thing that went under his claws was fur and scalp. He decided that he liked not wearing his helmet, and that he'd do so for as long as he could. Scratching the back of his head was rather soothing…

"Gran'ma is a family, part of a family, an old lady in your family would be a Gran'ma." Aryll clarified.

"Ah, well I have a pack, not a family... thing."

"Oh." Aryll rolled over on his bed and looked up at him. "What's a pack?"

Wolfkaunos stared at the she-pup with the exact same expression that she had just favored him with and she giggled.

"You look silly with your ears sticking out like wings on the side of your head…"

"I… imagine I do. You sincerely don't know what a pack is?"

"Nope."

"A… pack…" Wolfkaunos frowned, how could he explain something that he was born knowing? "A pack is flesh and blood, old hunting comrades who live in the same territory, who've hunted together. A pack is the heart of a Wolfos. All should be given to the pack rather then kept to one's self. By one's Mother and Father you are born into the pack, and that pack is yours until the end of your days, as you are the packs…"

The she-pup thought it over, frowned, and kicked at the bed as she thought some more.

"It sounds important."

"One's pack is the most important thing in the world." Wolfkaunos said softly. "Fang Crimsonrun, he who has endured eighty four Din hunts, is my –and all who call themselves a Crimsonrun- pack leader."

"Is he the mean person, up there?" Though inside Aryll pointed up and Wolfkaunos needed not to ask what she meant.

"No, that is the Master, Lord by Din's Will, the Fire Bearer and Bringer. My pack leader is nice, well… _somewhat_ nice. He's gruff, old, his teeth are rotting and it makes him surly that he must chew on blood soaked plant pulp to keep what few teeth he had left. But he is wise, very wise, one of the few grey manes we have around the Fortress."

"If the pack is everything… then why do you listen to… what's his name? Ganondork… er dorf… Ganondorf!"  Aryll quickly remembered the proper name with Wolfkaunos glaring down at her.

Wolfkaunos lolled out his tongue, satisfied that she had made a simple error with her too short tongue and mouth, and easily forgave her ignorance and misspeak.

"Well, that is quite a story." He shifted on the stone bench he'd dragged into the sleeping part of his den when he'd gotten sick and tired of standing watch over her like he'd guard a part of the halls upstairs.

Making the most particularly whiny-squeak-chirp noise she sat up and looked at him with wide black eyes.

"I _love_ stories!"

"Uhh…" Not quite understanding the term "love" as it did not exist in His tongue or Moblin speak, he decided that perhaps "love" was a good thing and that he'd ask the pack leader about it when the opportunity arose.

"Stugeon would tell all sorts of stories, about Heros, and Kingdoms, and things called horses and fields…" She frowned. "Do you know what a horse and field are, Wolfkaunos?"

He shook his head, all he knew of them was that they were "before his time" and when he'd asked as a pup he recalled how the Pack Leader had smacked him soundly.

"Oh… well Stugeon says that we don't have them because we don't have large pieces of ground, just islands."

"Ah." Wolfkaunos' ears slicked back. "Well it's always been like that I guess. At least, as far as we can understand it's been like that. But once, long long ago, when it wasn't as wet or there wasn't a huge sea everywhere you looked, it rained. It wasn't a drizzle, or some heavy shower, it rained and rained for days, for weeks. Scared the Wolfos called for Din, begged the Goddess to-"

"What's a Goddess?" Aryll chirped.

"What's a… a… g… god… goddess?" Wolfkaunos actually sputtered. It was the first time since earning his armor that he was so shocked that he actually showed it.

"Un huh… are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine…" Wolfkaunos lay on his side, staring at the she pup with shocked ember eyes. "It's just… I thought everyone knew what a Goddess was."

"Well I thought that everyone didn't have tails, or claws, or hooves, or stuff, I thought everyone looked like I did." Aryll said quietly. "I was wrong, I didn't know better until I came here."

"That's a very brave thing to say." Wolfkaunos rumbled. "It amazes me that something so small is so brave."

"Well it amazes me something as tall as you talks all smart like!" Aryll said with a giggle. "You better not go to Outset."

"Oh, why not?" Wolfkaunos yawned.

"Because Stugeon would follow you around and pick every story and smart out of you and write it in his big book."

Wolfkaunos let out a bark laugh and rested his snout on a forepaw.

"If that's the only danger of Outset perhaps I'll go there for a while."

"After Stugeon chases you around with his big book you'll swim back." Aryll told him confidently.

"Oh really? A wager?"

He offered a paw.

Laughing she put her paw to his and they shook on it.

"Now a Goddess… well there are only three Goddesses. Din of the Crimson Flame, She of the Ice Touch, and The She who is Restless. Din made everything; she took the abyss that existed before anything was made and set it aflame in her hands. When the flames died down she took all she had melted, and she made the world. Using the hardest, strongest ashes, she put those on the molten world and made land. Spiteful at her Sister, She of the Ice Touch reached out, cooled the fires, and the Restless umm... Well she just ran around like a drunken Moblin doing absolutely nothing productive."

Aryll's dark eyes were curious, she opened her mouth…

"Don't… don't ask what a drunken Moblin is. You really _really_ don't want to know. They sing and dance and take off their shirts and run around… it's absolutely disgusting…"

Wolfkaunos shuddered and Aryll patted his hand to offer some comfort.

Nothing would blot out those horrible memories though, and he did not blame the Master in the least for locking up the wine and bear that they got on island raids after that incident.

"Din, she was not happy that her flame was quenched by her sister, so she put a little tiny bit of fire in every creature. She made all creatures from the ashes of her Great Burning of Nothingness. She hid her fire away so that no matter how much her Ice Sister tried she could never reach down and quench the Fires; she secreted the flame in the heart and in the blood of everything. And that is why are blood is red, because it forever burns."

Aryll reached out and touched her arm. She frowned and looked up at Wolfkaunos.

"But I don't feel hot…"

"Do you feel cold?"

"No."

"That is the answer, you are not cold. Therefore Din's fire keeps you warm."

"Ohh…"

"It's not a big fire, just a small one." Wolfkaunos explained. "Now…" He yawned. "Where was I?"

"Well you were talking about the rain," Aryll ticked off a finger. "Then you talked about Din." She ticked off another finger. "Then... I think that's it."

"Well Din, the goddess who made everyone from the Ashes of Nothing, answered the Wolfos, who were asking for help because it was raining so much."

"Did she make the rain stop?"

"Well… we wish she did, but she couldn't, because the Ice Maiden, angry that the Fire Inside the Heart was burning in the Wolfos' was making it rain to put out that fire. And no fire is great enough to stop the rain. The great wise Wolfos named Disei went up to the highest place in hopes that Din would hear his cries, and come down. She did not, but she sent a person who was not a Wolfos, but was not a Hylian, who was made out of Fire and Ash. He appeared before Disei and told the Wolfos that the Ice Maiden would not succeed. Not if Disei listened.

"Gather all your pack, all the packs who reside near you pack, and take them to a mountain of grey stone and you will find dens within. The Waters may come all they like, but within the Mountain of Ash you will be safe and hidden from the Ice Maiden. I will send you a black bird, so that you know which mountain is true." Said the He of Fire and Ash.

So Disei did so, and the waters came down and down and there are still Wolfos' here today because he did so living on the same grey mountain, with the same black birds that were waiting for them when the rains were falling down."

"Well…" Aryll frowned. "What happened to the not-Wolfos peoples?"

Wolfkaunos shrugged. "Black birds must have come for them too, or else you wouldn't be here."

Aryll thought it over for a bit said.

"That was a nice story, but then what happened?"

"Ah…" Wolfkaunos' ears slicked back, those intense black eyes made the back of his mane prick up. "Well…"

"Pleeeeeaase tell me Wolfkaunos! I know there has to be more! I just know it!"

Then she puppy eyes him and he moaned, for not having a puppy face the non-Wolfos puppy was _very_ good at puppy eyeing him. Admitting defeat with a sigh Wolfkaunos put a paw over his eyes. He'd walked into the trap, now he'd have to fight his way out of it.

Hmmm fight… that gave him an idea.

"Well… when the great Wolfos Disei was a very young there came an evil creature. It was tall and clawless, but carried fake claws of steel and flying claws that they called bows and arrows…."

 


	15. For a Time...

Chapter 15

For a time she was free…

 

Claws tapped against the girl's cell, she opened an eye and glared at the bird who was pacing back and forth along one of the bars. She caught a glimpse of orange eyes, and knowing what that meant she rolled over, turned her back on her "guest".

"M… not talkin' to you…" Aryll growled, burying her face into her crossed arms.

"Awk."

"You hurt me. I'm not talkin' to you." Aryll huffed; she glared at the bird, and then looked up at the small slit in the wall that they called windows. The lightening sky told her that the guards were going to come soon, sighing Aryll stood, and wrung out her dress. She must have been tried to have slept through water rising…

Looking at the other girls who all looked to be sleeping soundly she realized they all were.

They were too tired to care about much of anything, could only think about how miserable they were…

No one should live like that, but they didn't have a choice, do the tasks or be dropped over board and be shark bait. Do the tasks good, or go up the stairs… to see the person who stole laughter and only left them with tears.

Wolfkaunos' Master, Long-Spear's Lord….

One was nice, the other mean.

"This place is confusing."

The orange eyed bird made a quiet noise, and then fluttered up to the door knob. There was a soft 'click' and with the barest of sounds as the door swung open.

"Are you trying to get me in trouble?" Aryll hissed.

The bird only stared at her with its fire hued eyes.

"If you didn't know-" Aryll growled at the expectant creature. "-Wolfkaunos got in trouble and the pigs said that they'd eat me for reals if I got out again. And they said that their… your… whoevers Master would let them."

The bird ruffled his feathers, clicked his beak, and then went back to staring at her. The door was open; one wing was extended in a silent invitation.

She couldn't do anything, Wolfkaunos couldn't see her until his Master told him that it was alright, and for as far as Aryll could tell that would never happen. She'd had a miserable last three days, a lonely three days with the girls who now hated her. They hated her for not fearing the pigs, for not fearing the dogs, they hated her, and when she'd been able to see and talk to Wolfkaunos it hadn't seemed so bad…

But alone, with only them for company when they had done those horrible tasks, it had been a hard lonely three days.

And the world –despite all its confusion- outside of the giant seagull cage had never looked so good…

She tip toed across the cage, sneaked past the sleeping girls. There was a groan, she froze, one of the girls rolled over, looked around with sleep glazed eyes.

She looked guiltily into Mila's sleepy eyes, though why she felt bad she wasn't too sure.

"Kree!" The bird sounded annoyed.

"Oh just shush you oversize cucu."

Fire Eyes snapped his beak but Aryll ignored him.

"Wha'cha doin'…" The girl muttered.

"Going out." Aryll admitted.

Some sense came into the blonde girl's eyes; she sat up and stared first at her, then the open door, then at Fire Eyes.

"Out there… with that _bird_?"

Aryll nodded.

"You're crazy." Mila shrank away from the door, as if horrible evil things lay beyond it. "They're right; you are a crazy dog kisser."

"I am not a dog kisser." Aryll huffed. "But if you wanna stay in that seagull cage then _fine_."

"Better here than there." Mila growled back.

Biting her lip, to hide how it wanted to tremble, Aryll blinked her eyes to keep the wetness back.  Still, she managed a passble storming, wrenching open the door, she stopped shy of slamming, and it was that consideration that made her pause.  Irritated, if that hiss was anything to go by, Fire Eyes fluttered to the window by the stair and hissed at her some more. But she did not see him. She stared straight ahead and whipped at her eyes that’d leaked despite all her efforts.

"I… I'm not a bad person because I'm not sc- scared of them like you are."

She left, leaving the open door behind her. For a little Mila glared, then she got up and crept to the door and closed it.

X

"Why are we going up here for?" Aryll asked, but Fire Eyes just fluttered to the landing above her and looked back, he was waiting.

She followed, and it was ten landings, ten turns up the winding stair case later that she asked a more important question.

"How… many more stairs are there?" She panted.

"Aw aw awk!"

"It's not funny!" Aryll growled. "You can fly, I can't."

The long head snaked around; the orange eyes met hers and gleamed with silent challenge, almost as if he was daring her to fly.

"Yes really… I didn't turn into a seagull I just borrowed one."

Fire Eyes only opened his wings and fluttered to the next landing, craning her neck she sighed, four more to go.

Climbing up the wooden stairs (too large for her to use comfortably, the people who went up here must have been as big as Wolfkaunos!) she trailed along after the bird. The sun glared and glinted at her from the slit windows at every turn.  Any moment the pig guards would come. The other girls would get in trouble because she was gone, she turned, looked back and down. Guilt nibbled at her and she nipped her lip in turn.

They'd get in trouble because of her, just like Wolfkaunos had, just like everyone else.

Maybe she was bad after all…

"Kree?"

She sat; decided that she could rest for just a little. Since there wasn't anything else to look at she stared at Fire Eyes.

Fire Eyes was waiting, patient now when he wasn't only a few minutes ago. His dull yellow talons sank into the wood, his bright orange eyes glittering at they met hers… She looked at him, picked out the bit of red on his crest, on his crown, and around his eyes, the rest of him was black as night sky. He wasn't like the other black birds she'd seen. They had white and browns mixed in with their black feathers, but besides the slight highlights of red Fire Eyes was pure black. Even his tail feathers, they weren't gold like all the others, just an oily black.

"I don't think you're a normal bird, Fire Eyes."

He only laughed his harsh "awk" laugh then craned his neck to look at the twisted path that went up.

"They say the scary thing is up there, the monster bird, and something worse." Aryll whispered.

Tilting his head to the side Fire Eyes looked down at her. _What do they know_? That what his gaze was saying to her.

What did they know? They stayed in the cage, they never asked.

But Wolfkaunos knew; he was scared of what was up there. So were the Moblins, the big spear holding pig things were scared too.

Like she'd seen the Rito do, she fisted her hand and put her arm across her chest. Clicking his beak Fire Eyes opened his wings and fluttered off the landing and onto her arm. He acted in that moment as tame as any trained seagull.

All the while his eyes were as wild as only fire could be…

"I'm not going to be scared." Aryll murmured. "I'm not going to let the scared keep me in a cage, or here."

With Fire Eyes resting on her arm (he was heavy!) she went up the stairs, to the top of the tower that was open but had three giant sharp grey teeth sticking out of three of its eight sides. With a harsh cry he opened his wings and with a rain of black feathers Fire Eyes flew off, left her to do the climbing on her own.

She climbed up with shaking hands, ignored her shaking legs, and crawled over the lip of the top of the second highest tower. She sat on the edge, now that she was up, stared at the oversized steel thorns that ran across the grey bricks that rose out of the outer edge of the tower. She looked at the giant grey metal thorns that made a gate that blocked this tower from the misplaced boat.

"Awk!" She turned, Fire Eyes had returned, something small and yellow fell from his talons as he glided over her.

She reached out, caught it, and looked to him in shock. He only bowed his head, and then stared at her, waiting. Aryll opened her hand, stared at the small pear she’d caught.. been given….

"What do you want me to do? You want me to do something, I know it…"

He only looked to the sky, to her, then the sky.

She stood, understanding came to her and Aryll smiled.

"You want me to show you, how I fly."

He nodded, then waited, watched, his eyes unblinking, their fire never quenched, ever burning.

So she danced, calling upon sea and sky, she danced and lifted her offering to the sky, to the rising sun. And from above came down white wings, and for a time she could fly. For a time, she was free…


	16. Wisdom in Fear

 

Chapter 16

Wisdom and Fear

Fire Eyes now seemed intent on following her everywhere. Aryll sighed, looked up, and with a fluttering of black wings he made his way into the winding staircase that she was to climb to meet the person who'd be giving her her tasks for the day. With the now continuous drizzle outside they couldn't do any horrible outdoor work (or so their head captor had decreed, there’d been some snapping and snarling about that, but the few who’d grumbled the loudest had been invited up, one had gone, and never come down, so for now the grumbles were very quiet), so their captors (mainly the meaner big pigs) had been struggling to find things for them to do inside. After they'd scrubbed all the pots in the kitchen twice the girls had been given orders that sounded too smart to be piggish. They’d been split up and told where to find their watcher for the day. They were told to expect nothing easy, lots of hard work, but wasn't life here _always_ "hard work"? Aryll sighed, ignored the black bird that was flying tight circles around the room and emitting short harsh rasping coughs that Aryll took as birdish bad words. There weren't any torches in this hall, the closer you got to the pig's rooms the fewer torches there were.

No torches meant no places for Fire Eyes to land.

"You know-" Aryll muttered, getting on her tip toes to look out the window Fire Eyes had finally decided to settle down on. "-birds like it outside, not inside."

"Awk!"

Fire Eyes shuddered, looked back at the storm and perhaps there was a glint of fear in his fire hued eyes. She didn't blame him; even the sea gulls were scared of storms. Before she could pet him, or say something to reassure him that he was safe if he stayed inside he whipped his head so that he was looking at her. For a long moment he just… glared at her then scrunched up his face as much as a bird could. One loose soggy feather fell from him and a whole lot of water went everywhere as he shook himself out. Aryll shielded her face with a hand, cringed back from the icy water and the sopping mess of bird that danced in place as he deliberately tried to get most of the water on her.

"Bad Fire Eyes! Bad!"

"Scree!"

She gave him her best glare, tried to twist her face so that it was as scary as Orca's… and from the glitter of those alien eyes she knew she failed miserably. Finally, sick and tired of just dripping, she wiped her face off with a hand and sighed.

"You're mean!"

"Aw awk."

"I bet…" She stuttered through the insult, she'd never made fun of anyone besides her big brother before so it was really hard. "Why I bet you're not a bird! I bet you're really a dog in disguise as a bird."

Fire Eye clicked his night black beak at her and Aryll had the feeling he didn't like her guess.

"Well, you don't act like a pig; you act a little like one of the dog knight things… "

Aryll folded her legs under her, absently settling the dress so that it offered some cushioning against the cold gray stone. She bent her arm, fisted her hand like the Rito did. Deciding, as she all but offered her arm for Fire Eyes to sit on, that she should be a little nice. Fire Eyes ignored her arm as a perch and, hopped down off the window seal and landed with a soft thump besides her. Grunting, the Kragaroc managed a kind of bird walk. She didn't know what else to call it, since a person didn't walk quite like Fire Eyes did, not a pig person of a dog person, or an islander. Fire Eyes stretched his black scale legs as far as they could go, wrapped his talons along the small chips in the stone that were made by the heavy foot falls of the pigs going up and down the towers all day, he managed a few awkward steps away from her, and she scooted away so that he was on one side of the step and she on the other. He didn't mind being with her, but he still didn't trust her. It was almost as if he kept expecting her to magic up ribbons or something.

"Well I know what you are." Aryll stood, whipped down the front of her stained, dirty, and tattered, dress.

"Cree?"

She turned, looked down at him even as he swept his head up to look up at her. The question in his voice, the need for an answer to what he was, it surprised Aryll that Fire Eyes needed to _know_ what he was.

"You're annoying, and mean, and smug, and loud." Aryll said firmly, ignoring the glare Fire Eyes pinned on her for her response. "You’re proud." Aryll crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You're _not_ the right color, and you're going to make me late. Now, are you coming or not?"

She offered her arm, for him to jump up on and he stared at her for a long time, he was… confused. At least that's what she thought his slightly stooped and tilted head meant.

"Scree."

"Fine, have fun Fire Eyes."

She turned on her heel and struggled up the steps. Why her watcher wanted her to come up all these stairs to see him she didn't know, but she'd find out. Probably too soon for her liking she'd find out and then she'd be stuck doing some awful task by herself.

There was a flapping of wings, Fire Eyes had gone back to the window, and he was looking out into the gray dripping world that lead to Here's outside.

Fire Eyes –Aryll decided- was crazy and very un-bird like to go out in that muck.

"You're not a bird, maybe you're not a dog, but you aren't a bird."

Those blazing eyes met hers, filled with silent challenge, like he was daring her to say what he was. It was as if Fire Eyes was daring her to guess, no demanding that she guess…

Suddenly she was scared, scared of those burning eyes, she cringed back, then remembering what she had promised herself, about never being scared again, she clenched her hands and met those fiery orbs. The long neck arched, the beak dipped once then the bird that wasn't a bird turned to the storm and spread his wings wide.

"Goodbye Fire Eyes, I guess whatever you're doing has to be important if you're going to get wet doing it…" Aryll nibbled on her lip, and then made her decision. "I'll leave the torch burning in the cell room, that way you don't have to sleep in some nest outside in… that." Aryll waved a hand to say "outside" and "when it's raining" or "when it's mucky outside" perhaps she said all that at once.

Fire Eyes just stared at her for a long moment; confusion was like smoke, dulling the flames that he saw through. At last he blinked, then turned and with a quiet grunt Fire Eyes jumped from the window and into the gray weeping sky.

X

"Me lucky." The green pig, no taller than the children brought to Forsaken smirked as he rubbed his clawless hands together. "Me get first pick, unlike _skaln_ spawn. So me pick you."

Aryll stared at the pig, vaguely remembering the voice, and then she smiled, recalling the night that they had run, run from the big blue pigs and from… well everything.

"Me remember, nice smell, shadow eyes, no sea blue like other island she things. So me pick you. Me." The creature thumped its hand against its slender chest. "Worm Eat-t-har."

"Wormeatter?" Aryll frowned, and then remembered what Grandma had taught her about meeting new people. She took the side of her dress in her hands and curtsied. "I'm Aryll, nice to meet you, Wormeatter."

"Why you bent over all funny?" The green pig snorted. "Funny Hylain trick?"

"I'm not a Hylian." She snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I'm from Outset, not Hy-loo-land."

Wormeatter snorted a few more times… no he wasn't snorting... he was laughing at her!

"What's so funny!" Ayll huffed, planting her hands on her hips.

"Island-she silly!"

"Am not!"

"Ams to!"

Arytll gnashed her teeth together, she wished Wolfkaunos was here, Wolfkaunos was nice, everything else here was mean!

The creature cocked his head to the side, stared at her for a long time. He just stared and stared and Aryll met that stare with one of her own, niceness be sunk in the Seas.

Wormeatter wasn't much taller than her, his ears were so long that they drooped under their own wight. They hung limp, brushed the creature's ankles, and Aryll couldn't help but think of broken sails at the side of his head, they were tattered, and his snout (like the rest of him) was a sea sick green, save a thin line that ran from the tip of his snout to the a wart that was on his face. That was more of a grass green then a sick green. Guessing what she was staring at, Wormeatter grunted; then bared his broken yellow teeth at her in what was not a smile.

"You no ask no dumb Hylain questions. You do. I say, you do..."

Not again! She'd heard this speech so many times, from Wolfkaunos, from every single blue pig...

"No." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I won't. I'm not going to do what you want; I'm doing what I want."

A green hand fell on her shoulder, stopped her as she was going to storm down the stairs, she jerked, was going to push the monster aside and run away, find some quiet place to hide.

"They see you; they put other She's in stew. Moblin do bad like that. They do bad to everyone, so everyone scared." The hands forced her to turn around, her nose almost touching Wormeatter's snout. Those red sparks bore into her, not with the intensity of Fire Eyes eyes, they were watery, like a candles flame obscured by clouds of smoke. "You be smarts, you be scared of Moblins."

"I... I'm not scared of them, not you, not them, not even of your dumb mean Master." Aryll shivered, making her words a lie, she was scared, scared all the time even when she didn't want to be.

The hands released her, Wormeatter shook his head, the ripped edges of his broken ears brushed the floor.

"You lotsa dumbshe-thing. You no be scared you be lotsa dumb."

"I'm not dumb, being scared makes you dumb." Aryll growled, trying to sound all Orcaish since her words sounded like something Orca would say...

"You want other she's in Stew? You wanna go in Big Stew?"

Aryll shook her head.

"You come, do. I say you do." Then Wormeatter smiled, it was a broken toothed smile. "Me say firstly, no run from Moblins and Dogs now."

Aryll smiled, it was her first smile in the whole day.

"I don't want to run from Wolfoses and Pigs either."

Wormeatter snorted, rubbed his snout and his ears twitched slightly, at least the top kinda twitched.

"No wanna run, no run. You clean lotsa, my room firsty."

"I'm... cleaning your room." Aryll whined, the smile leaving her in a heartbeat. She hated cleaning up after her big brother and his part of their house was like a pig sty, she couldn't even imagine how horrible a real pigs pigsty would be!

"You wanna go in stew?"Wormeatter's tone wasn't a threat, he wasn't telling her he would put her in the stew, but that she'd go there if she didn't do what he said. She shook her head and Wormeatter smirked at her. "You clean my room, clean it good. Me never clean my room ever again!" He squealed, sounding as happy as a normal Outset pig was when it was fed slops first thing in the morning.

She waited, waited until his back was to her, then she stuck her tongue out and made a face.

Wormeatter's happy squealed that he'd never have to clean anything ever again made him miss the "bleh"she made at his back, and since he never bothered to even turn around to check on her she spent  the whole walk to his "room" making faces. The one Dark Knight she passed on their way to her chore turned his armor head just a little.  He was staring, and she was worried until she heard it. A soft "tink ting tink" that told her that under his red shell the Wolfos was wagging his tail.


	17. Chapter 17

_Song of the Seagulls_

Chapter 17

Before the Rain

 

Grimacing Aryll tossed a moldering bone older her shoulder. She was well beyond the "eww" stage, beyond squealing and cringing back from the filth. After cleaning the pots and pans in the kitchens she doubted if anything could gross her out ever again. Lifting her head from the pile (one of many squirreled away in every nook, cranny of the jagged cave) she turned to the sound of wood raking stone.

Wormeatter stopped singing his silly tune, and then aware that the straw of his broom had fallen off once again bent down to gather the misplaced brush for his broom. Satisfied that the rat leather was now tied secure the Mokoblin went back to sweeping and singing, his weird rumbly chant. The song was nothing like the cheerful melodies that were sung in Outset, the sound of flute, drum, and Stugeons violin melded with the singing at every holiday.

Wormeatters song was a mix of grunts, strange bark like words, and the stomp of his cloven hooves. From time to time his long black tail thumped against the stone, and during appropriate times in the song that the creature heard in its head he'd drag his tail.

Much like a stick would drag over a rasp.

She whistled her own Outset song, he stomped and half danced to his own song, and the pile of bones and more solid matter from the pig creature's den grew. At last, so weary neither could even hum (or in the pig's case grunt) they paused to rest. In the cavern it was impossible to say how long it had been. There was no sun, no moon, and no gong to ring out marking each hour's passing like it was in the Wolfos' caverns. They rested and worked as long as it seemed alright to do so, and now to Aryll it seemed time to stop, to stop for the day and go back up into the oversized seagull cage and try to sleep.

Sighing Aryll rubbed her face, wipped her eyes, and Wormeatter looked at her, his dull grey eyes. He knew, and smiled a broken toothed smile.

"Done yet?"

"Done."

And that's what all needed to be said, Wormeatter would push the bones and stuff outside, and the chu-chus would come to eat. Aryll smiled, thanked the pig creature, and told him she'd go back on her own. If Wormeatter cared or even heard she wasn't too sure. The tatter eared Mokoblin was rasping hard words, a gnarled stick in hand he swatted at the piles of green and red that were surging across the massive communal cavern's floor. Wormeatter and all the low ranking Mokoblins lied in caves within a cave. A large bowl like pit had been dug into the rocky base of Forsaken. You had to pull open a hidden trap door that was in one of the spires of the Fortress. There a black pit, it looked no deeper than she was tall, but the darkness in its base shivered and twitched like a mess of angry Twees. Gripping the ladder you had to climb down, down through the shadows, your stomach did a quick flip, and then you were still climbing but not climbing down a hole in a tower. You were climbing a hole in a hole that lead into a cave that was part of the fortress that you couldn't get to without going through the swirling squirming dark.

"Back _klvavk_ spawn..."

The stick went swish through the air, and the chu chus only pressed themselves against the floor, enveloped the bones left out for them then slithered past the creatures hooved feet.

"No!" Howling the Mokoblin chased after them, wielding the stick like a sword and screaming bad words on the top of his lungs.

Aryll decided that now was a very good time to leave, and made a hasty retreat up the stairs.

She'd go up the stairs and pass the windows that were almost level with the seas, then up the ladder...

And down again, down the spire, past the guards, back to the cage...

In this place, filled with creatures that even the craziest person couldn't make up it made a strange kind of sense that to go from one place to another you had to take a crazy path.

X

Gripping rain slick stones -it had been sprinkling all day-, Aryll hesitated. Now in the tower that wasn't the tallest (it almost was but the boat's tower and the big bird's nest was way high up) Aryll didn't want to go back. So to stall she had thrust her head out the nearest window, and the appearance of her head had set a number of black birds to flight. Screaming bad bird words, startled from their nests, the black and grey birds left a rain of feathers behind them as they clawed their way thought the blackening skies. Silver blue light licked across the bellies of the clouds, a kind of upside down wave froth that lasted only for a second.

Bored, and suddenly frustrated and tired, the Outsetter watched the rain of feathers, watched the fleeing birds and looked up into the dark angry sky. The waters were always foreboding and the color of Stugeon's prized Octorok ink. This wasn't home, it wasn't Outset, yes she had people she liked here... Wolfkaunos was silly but nice and Wormeatter wasn't mean at all... but it wasn't home, she just wanted to go _home_.

She wanted to be home, the place where if she was even a little late she'd be missed, where people were people and it wasn't so confusing...

Sulking, Aryll kicked a loose chunk of stair that had probably been broken by the hundred and one hooves that clomped up and down the stairs day in and day out. It didn't get very far, she was small, the clump of rock was as big as both her fists.

"Looks like it's really going to rain..." Aryll noted to no one in particular.

As if to agree the clouds flashed again and a harsh cold wind wipped down and howled against the stones of Forsaken.


	18. Untitled, suggestions?

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 18

 

The winds howled, and had any being dared wander the walkways would have had the flesh flayed from their bones by the howling winds. Laughing like a mad man, raging like a beast, the wind scoured the stone flesh with invisible talons.  Some scream of an unfortunate was drowned out by the maniac howls. With ceaseless claws it scratched and gouged and only came away with fistfuls of sand for all its efforts.

Locked away in the darkest corners, the minions who served on the dark spire quaked, as did those who were held there against their will by the most capricious of chance. Avians had fled the sky, had fled before the storms coming, leaving a rain of feathers behind. Those few who had dared to remain now took wing and were struck down by the chaotic winds, leaving a red and heavy rain in their wake. The sky trembled, the awful vibrations were felt more in the heart than the ears, but gladly rattled the bones.

Triumphant, defiant, it roared forth lightning, offered a thunder all its own, then came the real thunder, and the violent rending of the sky was made monstrous for it was double.

White claws came down, they wrenched the stone walls and melted stone steps. The rain of earth under lightning's touch was an avalanche. And the avalanche was malicious, with debris falling upon structures and stair with wind chortles and obvious spite.

Then, madness upon the maddening, one figure dared the gale.  Dark and inconspicuous, a dark speck against the dark sea, all but invisible to the normal eye.  Still, for it’s coming the thunder quickened and a few more bolts were tossed down, torching what wood they could reach.

The rain viciously avoided that which burned.

A snarl, not lightning or wind born, but wind borne, cut through the dark skies.  As did lightning, red and fanged, it raced from the tower top and in spite sizzled the very clouds.  The white sky fire raced down after the first strike, and set the misplaced wooden ship ablaze.

As if guided by a furious hand, the streams of red lightning that had risen from the spire few with more frequency. They licked at the belly of the clouds, giving the illusion of leaving gapping wounds in the sky.

The winds slackened , slowed, then, down came the rain, less guilded, the flames about and below sizzled as water tamed their edges.  Then out one spectacular scream, and all was quiet, all was still….

The storm died in one moment and the dark figure retreated before the return of day.

And in that silence one Moblin smiled, one Mokoblin cowered, and in the arms of what should have been a mortal enemy, a child shook and a Wolfos comforted.


	19. Humility

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 19

Humility

She was asleep at last. When the sky had roared and the Fire had answered he had wondered if she would ever sleep. She had shaken, turned into the meekest of puppies by the mere voices that had howled outside.

He would have hated to see what she would become had she seen, as he'd seen, every time he had closed his eyes. Such shows of power didn't disturb him. They were familiar to him, as familiar as breathing. He'd been raised where the mightiest raised tooth and claw against each other for power, he'd seen throats torn asunder and gaping wounds. While seeing these things in the sky and earth were new, the scenes of violence and gore were very familiar.

So he'd taken the titanic skyfire battle that Din had set in his mind's eye in stride. Yawning, he ruffled the sleeping puppy's head fur, and allowed his tongue to loll out in silent laughter. He'd not wake her, such a thing would be unwise in a pup that had barely slept a wink, but he could not help himself in his laughter.

Born to such things as Din's pride and determination, it was funny to see her balk at the power that pride and determination demanded.

X

" _Hith, klvan_ Master!" There was a thump of paw on flesh, a familiar scrape of hoof on earth. He nodded, both at the show and its implications. The barely sheathed hatred that should have been given full reign was contained in a word, the unnaturalness of such. Normally he would have answered insult with a challenge and ended the matter there, but it was not the right time, nor was it the proper place.

 _Klvan_ and all its alterations were weak words, archaic words for pity and shame, and therefore insults. Never to be uttered save to the most hated, and always to be denied to a foe, they were words best forgotten. Yet weakness had its place, therefore it could not be forgotten, only played upon and colored the green of shame.

"It is done?"

"Yes, Master."

"And He of Raging Winds noted?"

"Was last night not enough to say He noted?"

An accusation of ignorance. That was an even more blatant insult than _klvan_. He reached forward then and in thick blue fingers clenched the detractor’s nose ring and dragged the startled Moblin forward. Snout to snout they stood, glaring, and at last Long Spear seeing the terror in the other's tear rimmed eye relented. With a careless flick of his hand he tossed the weak one back, to grovel and scrape his belly on the floor. It was a loser's penance, to do such things, and the show amused him so that the spear at his side did not drink the weakling's blood.

Only when the groveling bored him did he snap the expected "get out" and only then, and because it was he, and not the fake dark skinned Master, the groveling went on for some time.

X

Never ask a Bokoblin to do anything you could do yourself. It was because Ganondorf lived by that tenant -a rule hard learned due to a painful experience best forgotten- that the next day he'd ordered up slabs of wood and nails and a wood setter's tool for himself. He swore and cursed the erratic moods of the Lord of Storm that had set the creature against him, and his fortress. The destruction had been staggering. Despite the fact that Forsaken was made of stone the damage had been costly, and the least of it had been wrought by the wind. Lightning had melted the stairs, made stone shatter then run like water. Rain had seeped into the crevices and with slimy cold hands had wrenched out small stones. The holes that now peppered the earthen walls of Forsaken that had been instrumental to flooding in areas ill-equipped to deal with water.

And that had been merely the bulk of his fortress; it spoke little of the damage to his own quarters. Since he housed himself on the misplaced ship that was impaled upon the top of a rock spire the powerful winds had been able to rip asunder his sanctuary. He cursed and swore at the daylight that flooded his lair, cursed the pools of Nayru's essence as the light hit them just right and turned mere water into searing pools of golden luminescence. He cursed and swore, nearly made impotent by the pain of the light... the pain of his curse.

Lord of Darkness, Master of the Power of the Goddess', he was reduced to crawling across the wet planks. His footing so unsure that he twisted his ankle on the hem of his robes and fell into the still waters that served in place of carpeting upon his floor. Defiant, he stood once more, and squinted though a haze of gold tinged pain. He groped across the floor like a blind beggar seeking green rupees cast at his feet by the indulgent pass-byer. He was a wretched thing, half Gerudo half avian, constantly shifting from form to form, forcing off the King of Red Lion's curse with the force of his hate and desperation. Hands would grasp at rugs, would sprout feathers, then wither to wings and then swell from wings to hands again and again. Still, he managed, he fought, and somehow dragged the largest most water logged of his rugs to the one shadowy enclave were the sad twisted remains of a wall still stood.

One wall, only one stood where there had been four.

He snarled a violent hate filled oath at the lesser Gods, the demi-powers that stood steadfast besides the wretched Farore, the hate between Din and Farore... The hate between the two gods, and the actions of that hate as the gods pawns waged war against each other at the unseen prompting of their gods... it was the stuff of this world's forgotten legends.

Shackled to a destiny, an awesome destiny sheathed in hate and suffering had spent the first two lives as his status as "Ganondorf" drunk on the power of his Goddess. Dragos Dragmire son of the Hylian swordsman Gardios, son of the Gerudo Assassin Queen Amazon Opherina, had squandered the blood of his people. Addicted to power, the hallmark of his mother's Gerudo blood, indifferent to the lives of those around him, he had sought twice to crush the nation of his enemies.

He'd only succeeded in destroying his people, and helpless to stop Nohansen from destroying the world.

Snarling another impotent oath -this time at himself and at his opposite, the fallen king of light- Ganondorf curled in the darkest corner and wrapped the rug about him. In the blessed darkness he closed his eyes, and the pain of rebirth and fighting his rebirth finally stilled.

They had skimped on supplies, had given him next to nothing to work with, and it was only when he had been deep in his task and had spent most of the night working hard and accomplishing nothing that he had realized this. Wrapped in a false cocoon that smelled strongly of goat hair, Ganondorf seethed. The urge to cast aside the dark and storm through the hellish light and throttle those responsible for the bungling was strong.

But he would have no hands, only wings, and though the beak was sharp, it paled before a sword's edge. He was trapped, and he knew it. So he was cursed for knowing, and cursed, he cursed, and achieved nothing. Weary, he curled upon himself and closed his eyes.

He tried to ignore the dribble of red dye that fell upon his face.

That gummed his eyes shut.

For it smelt and tasted of something akin to blood.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note:
> 
> I'd never really planed to write with Link's perspective, but reading a reviewer's comment from a different site gave me an idea. And since Link was the only convenient way to express this idea I figured I might as well go with it.

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 20

An outsiders interlude part one

 

The sea was silent, peaceful. It gently pressed against the belly of the ship with the barest of sounds. Unfortunately, as the sea had grown more peaceful so too had the winds. They were so far gone that Tetra would barely hesitate to state the obvious –if inconvenient- truth. The winds were dead, the seas flat, and they were going so slow that it wore on her patience and made her pace the deck like a wild untamed thing.

Unfazed by all their troubles, the Outsetter wandered around the ship with abandon. The boy's sea blue eyes were wide and fascinated by all going around him. While his innocence was somewhat droll and humored some of the older members of her crew, it tapered off after two weeks at sea at a pace a snail would have envied.

Grumbling, the boy rubbed his bruised arms and glared at the cabin with venom. If Tetra was any judge, she'd have figured that the ship's newest "swabbie" and Niko had spent the early morning going through the pirate's endurance and dexterity training. The boy's sapphire eyes quickly lost their smolder of anger as Link looked around the ship seeking only Nayru knew what. Soon interest died. _Same old people in the same old places…_ She could almost hear him say that as he yawned. Then, unexpectedly, he set his gaze on her. A ghost of his old interest finding its way onto his face.

Tetra stiffened, turned away. There was no way in Nayru's name she was going to talk to some ignorant, rash, is-.

"Hi."

Somewhat strained, she managed a somewhat tight "hello" in response. Ignoring the teasing whistle from Gonzo, she put her hands on her hips and gave the islander a long look.

"I'm busy, why don't you go play with Niko again or something, like a good little boy." She sniffed, and then brushed past the gaping child. She almost made it to the door that lead below deck before the Outsetter thought of a comeback.

"I… I'm not a little kid! Why I bet I'm older than _you_ , pirate!"

Eyes flashing, Tetra whirled on her heel and glared at him. Her mouth opened to begin a hot retort about idiots jumping off cliffs after monster birds-

The windless sky howled and screeched above them. Racing from some point to the south it whipped around them, threw all hands on deck off their feet. The gales, screamed like a mob, and made the sails billow out. The force of the spontaneous gale from a cloudless sky as well as the fact that the violent winds whipped the sails the _wrong_ way was enough to nearly uproot the masts.  She froze for one second her feet were stuck to the deck and all wit abandoned her and made her eyes go wide. Reality interceded though, she snapped too as the seas caught up with the skies and the now suddenly heaving deck made getting up harder than hard. There were screams all around as the motions of the ship nearly threw everyone overboard, even she screamed. She was so scared and deafened by the winds that she was unaware of her shriek until the gale went silent. Her shriek still sounded in the still air even as her nails redoubled their grasp upon the water slick wood. At last, after everything was still for a long eternity, she lifted her head and peered up at the heavens. Tetra saw that the once blue sky was now choked with grey clouds that had formed out of nothing.

Her lips formed words like impossible even as her heart formed prayers of thanksgiving to Nayru…

Something in the storm screeched. It could have been the wind but she'd never heard such hate in a gale before. She shuddered as she felt some fell awareness scan her ship, the crew, and the passenger. While _it_ looked, with eyes Tetra couldn't see but hatred she could feel, the seas went flat. The air was so thick it felt like seas had replaced air and the madness of it all was clogging in her throat.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, the sense of being watched dissipated. The wind was reborn, and lightly frothed waves licked the side of her vessel like the slavering tongues of starving dogs. The dark skies blackened, then without warning, or even proper build it was there.  Wrought by the cyclic motions of a furious hand, a solid spire of wind was fast approaching. Cyclone! Screamed some hand, in her terror Tetra could not tell who’d said what. Eyes wide in fear, mouth sagging till it nearly hit the deck, Tetra stood rooted by her terror.

With a squeak, Link, _the islander,_ took one look at the sea born hazard and raced for the cabin. He wasn't alone, screaming in terror her crew raced back to the cabin in droves, she was only aware of her bulky first mate pausing for a moment to pick her up by the waist and bring her along.


	21. Outsidder part 2:  Dinner Interrupted

Song of the Seagulls

The Outsider part two

Dinner Interrupted

 

He thought he was being sneaky. A quick roll in the soot had turned his green hide into a black streaked green mess, and a quick look at himself told the obvious. He was hid so wonderfully! So, well hid, he slipped across the center of the room on his belly, little cloven feet scooting him forward, belly flat (ish) against the floor, long ears dragging. His hooves chinked, scratched and scared the stones about him. Not only that, his ears rustled as they scraped over grey stone, deafening him with their every motion.

And he bag slung over his shoulder blended in beautifully. It was a bright fuchsia thing that had been something else, he wasn't sure what, but it had been something else belonging to a so-and-so during a raid. Raid done, it had been taken, turned into something else, than changed again. In truth he held only the rags, stitched together with a loving hand posing no skill. His "bag" was soft, a bit sullied, but his, so he cherished the hand me down of the highest order and made it precious by association.

Loot, his loot, never mind he'd been too young to be on that raid, he could say he'd been there because he had loot to prove it.

He smiled, flashing broken fangs in a wide smile.

Though holey, and dirty, it was almost musical, his baggie. The way it thumped and thudded and squelched was almost pretty.

The green pig person was blissfully aware that not only was it loud, but it gave him away because it oozed. From the pores and seams and… really the whole of it, left a wide sodden drag mark wherever it went. And since Wormeatter and his loot were hardly separate each place he went was marked in wet grey stripes.

But he was being sneaky, clever, not even Master could be this clever!

So he carried on, oblivious to how the girls in the cell stared at his coming, eyes wide, cringing with fear.

Never noticing that one wasn't cringing in fear, until their eyes met, and she smiled.

He could have gotten mad, might of. He was hiding and all, he shouldn't be seen, hiding people weren't seen unless they got caught and all… But her eyes were like the stuff between stars, and he smiled, liking that familiar darkness.

"Oy." She whispered it, and he had to wonder why.

He smiled wider, and the other things in the cage cringed back. Forgetting he was hiding Wormeatter popped to his feet, waved at that soft salutation.

"Hi she!"

Then he remembered, snapped stubby hands over his snout, and cringed. But the big blue pigs, all stuck in the corners where they'd be nice and dry when the waters came, just kept snoring.

And, unlike boring, clinking Wolfoses, she didn't yell at him for bein'; loud, she smiled and scooted as close as the bars would allow her.

Not liking those bars, the small pea green pig flashed his fangs in a broken smile, paws loosed his snout as he pawed through his bag, and pulled out the first, shiny thing that caught his eye. Though a bit tarnished, and worn, it gleamed in the torchlight, and he held it over his head, waved it too and fro,

She giggled, the she he liked.

The others, those he didn't know, cringed back.

Ignoring them, ignoring big bad pigs, and whoops and lights from outside that were supposed to mean something important (what he couldn't recall) he padded up to the she's cage, key in hand, and got to opening.

XXX

"He's a screamer." Gonzo noted, watching the green top, barrel encased speck go over the wall.

Niko was whining for the spy glass, and for once Zuko was sharing, for a small fee at least.

"A Blue's all I got!" The small pirate groveled. "Pleeeease!"

"Fine." Ever laconic, Zuko took the payment and passed up the telescope at a reasonable discount.

Reasonable that was until you realized the rest of the crew had to pay a red rupee to use the 'scope during the Islandser's flight.

Tetra, who had her own out and watching, ignored the play between her crew and simply enjoyed the show… The boy was over the first wall and sailing merrily along (minus the screaming of course).

Insanely he was still screaming even as he flew, even when they warned him that they'd be cutting the rope, even when they'd been getting the catapult in position.

She wasn't even sure he'd heard her assurance that she'd done this before, lots of times.

She hadn't. Not really. But she'd tried a lie on for size anyway; anything to stop the boy's hysterical whimpering.

Nothing had worked, he had to be stuffed feet first into the barrel. Squealing and fighting, he'd nearly upset the barrel in his wild thrashing, so they hadn't been able to take a good bearing before the shot. She'd just cut the rope and cut herself free from obligation all at once.

Now she kicked back and enjoyed the reward.

Tetra was sorta sure he'd make it over the wall when she'd done the honors. And now there he went, proving her right, she smiled wide, giggled. It was nice to know she was right all the time. Because, right as rain, there he went, over the wall, over the giant bird's head, -the bird ducked, letting out a gap beaked scream of its own, her crew "oh"ed at that- and smashed head first into the stone wall underneath the giant ship near Forsaken's peak.

Opps.

Well, she'd just have to adjust the point of aim next time.

Still, she had to wonder, as the bird gapped at its unexpected visitor, as it's visitor was peeled off the wall by gravities steady hand, it the boy had stopped screaming somewhere along the way. She wondered if Link had realized that he might want to, you know, breathe at some point.

When the monster bird clapped its wing over its head, feathers all a rustle in a show of purely avian displeasure, Tetra had to give Link his dues.

For an Islander brat, he had a pair of good strong lungs.

Still this was funny in its own way.

This would be hero, chaser after birds, and serene sitter through tsunamis and waterspouts was scared of heights. She'd resented ever moment he'd sit in the mess hall, humming and hawing as the ship had rocked wildly under the… things… storm, looking up only once to ask "are we there yet?" All the while her crew, pirates almost since birth, had been reeling around like landlubbers, sea sick, and miserable.

As for her, she'd never gotten sea sick, dinner had just… disagreed with her that day, that's all.

All in all, obligation was met, duty done, they were free people again. Time to set sail. She snapped the order to Gonzo, her second mate, her people scrambled to obey, but there was no bite to her order. Only a restless longing. Above the sails shivered, the wind went on its merry way. Away. Turning their ship from the horror story that was Forsaken, Tetra hoped the kid would think to close his mouth before he landed in the water. But what was done was done, and it was time to move on.

The winds had changed, it was time to go. To begin that unexplainable chase that had driven her her whole life. The one she'd started as a little girl, that jealous rush. The one she continued now. Nothing would outrace her, not wind or wings, her ship was the fastest in the seas...

And she'd prove it, time and time again.

"Let's go!" Tetra cheered, her crew cheered with her, full sail, turn to starboard…

The wind would be their guild.

XXX

He'd nearly choked to death. An inglorious death befitting this inglorious world. Still, Din needed him for something for he'd managed not to die in shock. He'd fallen far, over these long years, adopting Hylian niceties about diet and eating utensils and other foolery. But, truth be told, he'd grown weary of raw, half scorched meat, eating with his hands, and the like. So, on a lark, coinciding with him finding an ancient Hylian table manners book during a raid some decades back, he'd strived to learn simple things. Like eating soup with spoons, fumbling about with forks. He'd never really mastered forks, used one fork for everything, but there'd been no one to care, so he hadn't cared either. It had been an amusing diversion to while the time for a little.

Until it grew stale, and boring.

But, though boring, he'd never quite dropped the practices. Most of them, yes, but he'd grown fond of forks and the like so he'd kept that part of his etiquette up.

Ironic that that's what had nearly done him in.

The fork he used for everything clattering to the ground, he hacked up the remains of his repast, dislodging the spoon he'd half eaten as well. It wasn't much of a loss, a rather watery chicken soup that was supposed to be a cream. While the meal had tasted a mite like betrayal, he'd ignoring that fact, musing over what went wrong with this batch. Thus had the Dark Lord, and King of Evil been occupied with the matter of... not his past… but his repast.

He hadn't gotten the instructions right, _again_. And after centuries of trying was half a mind to burn the bloody cook book and be done with it.

It was in the middle of those thoughts, he'd heard it. It sounded like divine wraith, like Farore's fury… save high pitched, pre-puberty, and fury didn't quite sound _that_ feminine. He'd of shrugged it off, save that whatever it was was drawing near, and he was half in a final indulgence nip before he got up to investigate when the crash had caused him to start.

With the spoon half in his mouth.

He found out the hard way that asphyxiation was a hard death, nearly choked to death over his own foolery and after recovering staggered to the nearest window. He had walls, phantom walls made of magic that would burn away at the coming of dawn, and the window and route to it was also equally artificial. Still, after many hours hard work, and a busy day the day before so he'd wasted a little Power, and had intended to enjoy his food before getting back to work.

At the window, staggering a little, trying to catch his breath, he fussed with shutters and glass covered openings. The charred and warped locks gave way and he looked out -he adamantly refused to call them portholes, he was not a pirate, despite what this world called thieves, Din damn him if he ever started to talk like one- and looked down.

Just in time to see a speck of green surrounded by a mess of shattered wood be swallowed up by gloom.

A few moments later and there was a splash.

In truth, gravity probably solved the problem. What was done was done, the brat would drown and the sharks would have a bite and the Moblin's would complain.

But something nagged at him. That glimpse of green, the inkling of shape that might have been a boy. He swore. Tossed the spoon to the floor, the stupid thing that had nearly killed him, passed through floorboards that weren't and clinked and clattered against Forsaken's rocky base below.

There was no splash, no doubt it was broken beyond repair, he wouldn't wonder at the stupid utensil's fate.

The boy though, with that unlucky colored shirt (or all too lucky, it depended on one's view of things) however had offered no such assurances with his departure.

Thus, swearing and cursing all three the Goddesses he ripped open the door of his rooms, stepped out into the walk way, and started his descent under the light of the swollen, blind eye of Nayru, gnashin his teeth all the while. Teeth that were fast melting into that all too familiar beak. His skin itched, and he indulged in a scratch while he could and heard a familiar rustle of feathers and down being shuffled. Then, his arms stiffened and he had to endure the itch without recourse. His arms ached as the strength left him, melted into that damned, damning lightness that made flight possible. He continued to swear as Nayru's curse enfolded him, stealing everything that made him him and shunting his soul in a miserable, bird shaped, vessel.

Suffice to say, he wasn't pleased to have to take wing this late at night, but there was a small comfort in all this

If he found the boy, he'd kill him.

Limitations of this form aside he'd think of a way.

A nasty way.

So taking cheer at that little promise he leapt into the skies of his Forsaken, his own plumage a match for the black, lightless skies.

 


	22. Chapter 22

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 22

Outsider: part three, Pirates and Pigs

 

Dragging from the water, he gripped grey stones, moaned, and coughed up sea water. Still coughing, trying to purge the gritty, dry taste of salt out of his mouth, the boy in green crawled over the lip of the edge and rolled his water logged frame away from the sea. Bruised, aching, and feeling a lot of sympathy for anyone catapulted. Never mind you didn't catapult a person (except they had, _him_ , that thought summoned another groan all on its own). The Outsetter moaned just to hear something besides sea lapping against stone, then with a whimper opened his blue eyes and gaze up at a black sky.

Above, beyond, the giant bird flew about in a frenzy, its screams for being woken were like thunder, its wing strokes mercifully distant at it blazed off in the wrong direction chasing the Seas only knew what. Light trailed after it, beams of sickly yellow hue that shoot out from the towers etched the monster's route of departure and taking a load off his mind.

A massive bird sized load.

Well, he was in…

Tetra's voice chimed, a memory pounded into his skull at impact.

"Well _I'm_ not going to risk my people, but we'll think of another way, a pirate's way…." She'd turned to him, flashed her teeth in a wide green. "A… sneaky way."

Some instinct, commonsense Grand'ma would've called it, told him to back away. So he had, but he didn't get far considering he was on Tetra's ship. On the topside, with the door below deck cut off by a scowling, sword holding, Niko. Tetra's crew, who'd been busy passing Zuko's spyglass from hand to hand had turned on unspoken signal, ringed all around, making overboard not an option.

"Don't you trust me?" Tetra pouted, lower lip nipped by her teeth, causing it to puff out just so, glittering sea blue eyes wide. She looked like Aryll just then, a tiny bit anyway. But the pirate only looked like Aryll when his little sister was trying to "cute" her way out of trouble. It sometimes worked with Grand'ma, never with Orca, and sorta with Stugeon.

Unless there were crabs involved, then it _never_ worked with Stugeon.

Long experience had told him not to trust that look. Still he was an honest boy, Grand'ma had always always told him to be honest, so he shook his head. Hoping he wasn't hurting her feelings too bad.

To that the pout fell away, she grinned, showing her sadness to be as fake as Aryll's when she was trying to "cute" outta trouble. Still smiling, she tossed out a trademark wink and Link had felt a cold chill sweep up his back.

Or maybe it was the pirate, who he had just bumped into, that made Link feel cold.

"That's alright." She assured him, still smiling like they were the best of friends. Looking beyond him, a bit above and behind actually, Tetra's tone became firm. "Gonzo! Get him! Nudge, Senza, get the catapult ready! Mako, Zuko, check our bearings and set the sights! We're going to attack Forsaken!"

"Aye Aye!"

Hands snapped him up, and though he fought and hollered, and screamed, he was dragged to the waiting wooden behemoth. Those named milled about, someone (Nudge he thought, the long faced one with seaweed colored hair) rolled out a barrel.

And those misgivings he had, those bits of commonsense that had whispered warnings about how dumb this was, how stupid he'd been to leave home, they started screaming in his head.

In chorus actually, and their song was a wry "I told you so."

Before he'd _really_ started panicking, _right_ before they stuffed him in the barrel and roped him in, he'd been somewhat coherent. Tetra had paced about his confinement, ignoring how he'd struggled in Gonzo's beefy hands, her smile was distinctly… Pirate. Wide and cruel, like right before the biggest laugh ever.

"Don't worry, this won't hurt me one bit." She'd assured him.

Then he'd see the rope, and knew what the barrel was for, and he'd stopped thinking entirely.

Now, here he was, in, bruised, and not feeling all that well. Running into walls (well, being _catapulted_ into walls) sorta did that though. Hands fisted, he decided to try to sit up, and did. The world rolled about, he was almost barrel sick (he thought sea sick didn't fit this too well) and to avoid getting sick he looked down. Counted stones and lines and shadows until the ringing in his ears went away. Gaze locked on the ground, it took a while for him to realize what he was staring at, green, fisted in his left hand, rumpled… In his left hand was his hat, his back had scraped as he stirred, assuring that his shield was strapped on.

No scrape from his left side though. That fact set his heart to racing, and a quick nausea inspiring turn of his head told him what he'd sorta knew. Told him what he hadn't wanted to know. But this knowing was needed, he took in the blood chilling fact with reasonable maturity.

His sword was gone.

He did sotra look. Crawled up the stair way leading up, looking all the while.

When he dind't find his sword no panic took him, he was all panicked out. With a sigh he just gave up entirely at that point. Fell down to the grey stones with a soft plop and closed his eyes, pulling his hat over them for good measure.

His eyes popped open real quick though when he heard… something… scraping over stone. He heard grunting voices and the whiff whuff and massive… something… sniffing the ground.

His first thought was of pigs, but whatever was coming sounded way too big to be a pig from Outset.

And since Outset had the biggest pigs ever, he wasn't worried, not too much. Pale from old frights and shaking a bit from the cold, the Outsetter stood. There, a door boomed open ahead, across a mesa of grey stone a massive wooden door opened and there was a light from inside approaching. The creek of a chain swinging told him it was a lantern that made the light, he sat up, wondering what sorta pirates a place like Forsaken would have.

Then he found out.

Not about pirates, nothing about those. But about pigs, and about Outset.

It seemed that Outset didn't have the biggest pigs after all.


	23. The Outsider part 4: Oxymoron

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Because. Yes. Link does have a big head, and I couldn't resist pointing it out.

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 23

The Outsider part 4: Oxymoron 

 

He'd opened the cage, this miniature pea green Moblin. With flashing fangs he betrayed without realizing it. Took his captive a few stumbling steps. She'd insisted in a whisper they tip toe, and after some confusion about what tip toeing was, and if tip cloven counted, they carried on. There were some stumbles of course, a bit of effort, but they slipped out without the big pigs noticing.

Up high light chased something beyond the vision of both, with a glaring intensity that light shows to every dark night.

But that was beyond them, and thus dismissed as "silly" by one and "lotsa dumb" by the other.

Tossing his wet baggie on the grey stones that made up the landing before the girl's cell, Wormeatter let her hand go.

And despite what the big blue pigs had said, and maybe what even the Master thought, she didn't run away because she was let go. Aryll was happy to leaned against the grey walls and look at the sky she'd been denied for a few days now. Days that had felt like forever.

"Gunna go Jus' outsi'e a little." Wormeatter whispered, never mind they were out. Done with holding her hand in his paw, Wormeatter spread out his squashed, somewhat wet, catch before them both. Yellow, all fruit, most smashed beyond recognition.

Clearly someone had been paying attention (possibly spying!) on her and Wolfkaunos a few days ago. Before the storm. Where Wolfkaunos would have got angry, or worried, Aryll grinned at the unexpected treat and snapped up a nice looking pear.

Wormeatter's squeal of "No, no, no, tha' for the birdies!" came a few seconds too late as Aryll popped the treat in her mouth.

"Birdies?"

He pointed up, tucked his hands under his arm pits and flapped a little. It took a moment, then Aryll, understood. First Wormeatter than Fire Eyes, both liked birds. (Though why Fire Eyes who was a bird liked birds was beyond her.) She let the guarded grin she'd worn grow into a full smile at the thought and the piglet stopped flapping seeing she got it.

"You need Hyoi pears, not regular pears." The Aryll giggled. "This is a normal pear." She bit her bite, to make a point. Seeing how Wormeatter was wringing his little hands, snout twisted in a sorta snarl Aryll tossed him the rest of the treat.

He brightened up a lot, after that, eyes shining with joy, the fires of their depths no longer clogged by the smoke of his slow thoughts.

"You help me?"

"I'll help."

"You gunna show me how you do that bird thingie?" Wormeatter dared to ask, then at her nod he cheered. "Looks lotsa fun!"

Above them both lights chased after something, the stars glinted, their illumination pricking the black belly of night. But since both had "never minded it" they focused on other things. First, her stomach growled, and he, ever a pig was ever hungry. They split Wormeatter's "Birdie food" between them, and Aryll started her lesson by telling him what was, and wasn't, a Hyoi pear.

XXX

Oxymoron, _competent help_ , the purest forum he'd ever seen in his life. Had he his real form he'd of been smashing his teeth together, plots of murder seething in his brain. Hands on blade, he'd of stormed off to start those plots, and savored the following blood bath.

Suffice to say, stripped of his true self, he could only snap his beak shut, same plots of murder burning in his brain, his thoughts staining his eyes a hot crimson.

First, the boy, quickly captured, never reported. Instead of being dragged in shackles to the upper most levels and left for the Helmroc King or better yet _his_ perusal atop the fortress' peak the boy was thrown into the cell on the sea level. A cell he'd order the lazy incompetents to stop using a _decade_ ago. And while it had the proper requisites of a cell, being uncomfortable, known for drafts and rats, it also was the biggest security hole in the fortress.

It had a hole you understand, the gapping void in the back wall that any small boy could wiggle through.

Suffice to say, he was very unsurprised when the child -after a sizable span of pouting- found the error in the wall and crawled out. A struggle, some squirming, and a cheered "aha!" marked the boy's escape. Or rather, attempted escape. There came a grunt, following that pained noise was word that Aryll had heard Wormeatter use and dubbed "bad" in his hearing. A few moments later and out popped that familiar green hat and its attendant owner close behind.

His ears were a mite raw, his face a bit read about the edges, where his head had gotten stuck, but the boy was free.

And there were no guards, no one but those who'd caught the brat even knew he was here, and one of them was presently occupied with a card game two flights up, the other staggered to his den to get back to a bout of interrupted drinking.

Clearly, if this was going to go right, he was going to have to do this himself.

The bird heaved a sigh, and wished for his swords.


	24. Outsider part 5:  A hole in the plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/n: Written to "an anthem of a misguided youth" a rather funny Zelda remix that fit this far too well. Poor poor Fire Eyes.

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 24

The Outsider, part five, 

A Hole In the Plan

 

He was recalled of Orca the first time he'd seen it. The flexing of those talons, the flexing of the bird's hands, both motions were exactly the same.

The steady, intent, scary stare from those fire hued eyes however different helped Link cement the analogy, but sadly odd colored eyes aside the bird had nothing on Orca. After all, it was something of a pipsqueak.

Orca would make sure his fingers were limber before any bout. Shaking out kinks and pains before snatching up a spear and charging about his salle like he was twenty something rather than four times that number. Peeping through a large knot hole, Link started at the bird, and the bird looked at him, working out the kinks in its claws all the while.

Letting the stare off with the bird alone Link looked both left, than right. As much as the knot hole would allow. There wasn't a blue pig monster in sight. Whistling his cheer, the barrel clad youngster picked up the edges of his hiding garb and legs sticking out ludicrously, crossed the hall. His hat was tucked in his tunic, his oversized hero boos squelched, leaving a muddy trail in the dust choked pathways.

Unknown to the boy there _were_ guards nearby. Bulbous blue heads poked around the corner, they'd left their game pieces and cards under the meager light of a torch to investigate the high pitched warbling sound. Dice rattled from one enthusiastic gamers paw, the two guards were in the process of holding a quick argument about what to do.

"Yous wanna catch em?"

Above, claws clenched about the staff of a burnt out torch, gaze riveted on the walking barrel, the red eyed bird hissed. Advising them without words which option would be the better one. Or perhaps, in his avian way, informing them which would was the _only_ one.

"Naw."

Both turned to their game, leaving the whistling barrel to walk on its merry way

Wood crackled under the bird's grip, snapping off furious screams with his beak, the flame eyed bird started to scream, checked the impulse, and opened his wings wide to better chase after his prey. Clawing through the stagnant, sea tainted halls of Forsaken, the bird whipped up the stairway that was the boy's obvious destination, settling down on the center of the path.

Still whistling, the green clad child who'd been a thorn in his side for centuries, popped off the top of his cover's cap. Thoughts of murder, torture, sizzled the front of the Kargaroc's skull, as he shivered with barely contained violence. Oblivious, the child indulged in a show of stereotypical bravery that had marked each and every one of his ancestors.

Link poked his blonde head out, green cap curiously not in attendance. One hop, a failed attempt and the boy glowered at the tip top of the barrel. Clearly getting in had been easy, getting out was more of a chore. Thinking about it, raking his hand through his mop of sandy colored hair to help the idea along, the child snapped his fingers as inspiration struck.

The guards didn't even hear _that._

A hop, a reach, pulling himself up with the rim's barrel, the child fell with a plop at the stairs base. He stood, dusting himself, smiling all the while. The smile faltered when he saw the inferno eyed bird watching him.

It fell entirely when said bird opened his beak wide and let out a blistering screech of alarm.

"Shh! Shhhh!" Hoping up and down, waving his arms –but not drawing too close, the one time he'd tried to draw near the beak had snapped, threatening to take a few fingers- the boy tried and failed to sooth the screaming avian.

Awk Aw!"

Fuming, dancing with rage, the Kargoroc continued to scream. With an oath the boy scrambled into his mobile hidey hole, the lid lay forgotten at the flawed barrel's base. All it would take for another capture would be for one of the lazy beats to look about the corner, to _stand_ for Din's sake…

They'd see the boy then…

Dice rattled, one Moblin swore the racket, another cursed die and Din in equal measure. There came a near musical ting as a green rupee was added to the pile. Tickity tick, tap dancing on his talons, soul screaming for hands, arms, a means to do _something_ , the bird called Fire Eyes spared a second to glower at the collection of worthless animals he'd designated as guards.

Later, he promised himself, he'd see these three fools sent to-

Patience snapped, squinting fat rimmed eyes, grunting rage, the beast rolled, groped in the dark and pulled a long bone white spear from the nearby wall. Twisting about, still on its swollen gut, he threw, missing the bird completely. With a _thunk_ , steel tip slammed into wood, there came a squeak and a grunt from said barrel's occupant.

"Shut up!" The beast grunted redundantly. Snorting to itself in a show of piggish contentment it rolled about to concentrate on the important things in life.

Like its hand of cards.

Staring at the quivering spear and the impaled barrel and it's equally impaled occupant the bird waited in anticipation for a pool of crimson to drizzle out. He'd forget the attempt on his life, for now, beak scraping stone, eyes riveted to Forsaken's floor, he waited, nearly drooled in anticipation for the waiting. Nothing happened, no red rush, no moan. No motion stirred (or rather dribbled) about at the barrel's base.

But, it couldn't be said that nothing at all happened.

At the wooden span's top ten fingers gripped, there came a grunt that caused the bird to look up in wide eyed shock. Rising out of his wooden disguise, the bird's present perspective made the child seem like a behemoth rising out of nightmare. With a grunt the boy scrambled out of his hiding place, pale, shaken, but with a familiar look that caused a flash of pain to flare up in the bird's chest and summoned a deluge of old memories better buried.

Face pressed into still, grim, lines, the child's all too familiar blue eyes thinned. It wasn't quite hatred, nearly, but not quite. Hands fisted, the child pulled his hat out from where he'd stuffed it in the front of his shirt. Whipping his head up, eyes wide, talons scraping the bird took a few steps back, hissing all the while.

Wings mantled, eyes crimson, the Kragoroc was a malicious barrier between going back or out. Snapping his beak, in a show of absent malice, the bird hissed and danced in place. Promising pain and worse if the child tried to go up the stairs and head out.

Twisting his hat in nervy hands, the Outsetter's lips curled into something was most assuredly not a smile. He'd come to save his sister, he didn't have time to mess with this measly bird. Decision reached, he slapped his green cap against his hands, and that soft sound felt a mite ominous.

At least the bird's hackles rose a bit, indicating that he was having second thoughts.

There was something to the child's smile, that wasn't a smile. It caused the bird called Fire Eyes to hesitate in resuming his screams. Perhaps it was that unfriendly baring of teeth that promised pain that kept the bird's beak shut. Whatever the motive was, the bird knew he made a mistake, one that he realized all too late. With a look of ineffable determination the boy rushed the stairs, and guardian between the second floor and intruder from the first met in a rush.

Fire Eyes was unceremoniously tackled and sprawled under the young Islander's uncoordinated limbs, wings pinned, talons scratching nothing but tunic. Beak snapping, Fire Eyes managed to somewhat account for himself. Getting a good bite on the brat's nose, before things came to an end.

But _what_ an end.

Not glorious, or inglorious, but shameful till overflowed. It was sin against Din's very own pride. A capital sin that shamed Din and all Her own.

Overpowered, outweighed, overwhelmed, he'd fallen (alright been knocked down) but the indignity hadn't stopped there. To hell with honor, he'd opened his beak, intent on screaming for help until someone came…

The world went black, black and hot and… smothering. Like water but more cloying. He'd gagged under the smell and taste of… wet hair?

His screech died in his throat as he realized what had happened, and unable to do a thing about it he shivered with rage.

Blinking back tears of pain –he'd scraped his knees, and that bite had hurt- Link grunted. Picked himself up, and tucked his now bird swollen cap and it's protesting occupant under an arm. Now fully pinned, the beast was still, and quiet, in an ominous sorta way that might or might not lead to an eruption later one. But it had shut up. And that was good enough for Link.

So the boy limped up the remaining stairs, winging at every step. At the landing before the door he had to shift his grip on his thrashing prize, then steeled himself and took the final four oversized steps. At path's top he pulled open the door and looked back one. His barrel disguise that had seemed so good was now left behind. Stuck with an oversized stick, (said stick all a quiver) it was holey. So holey in fact that it wasn't any good no more, and that was a shame.

It'd been, kinda fun to sneak about. To sneak past Pigs and all. A wind stirred just then. The Sea's just rebuke, it stole his fun and made him shiver.

Link tried to ignore the chill was now making a merry home in the seat of his pants. The ripped seat of his pants (that spear'd been close, way way too close) no less, but trying not to think about it just made him think about it harder.

He'd of pouted, whined, but there was no one to hear and both activities lost their charm without an audience.

Anyways, he was here to save his little sister, and that's all that mattered.

Well that and the talk he was going to have when he got home. When Grand'ma saw his ripped up pants and wanted to know what he'd done _this_ time.

Saying he'd ducked a thrown spear wasn't going to save him.

It hadn't saved him from the window talk. When he'd thrown a rock and his playmate had ducked. He hadn't been at fault then either but did Grand'ma listen then? Nooo. She hadn't. He smelled a lecture on the horizon like how a pirate smelled a storm, but if he was smart, maybe a little sneaky; he could get out of it.

Maybe.

Hopefully.

"Awuroh!"

Clearly screaming when half stuffed in a sack was really hard. Well, that was just too bad, wasn't it?

"Oh shush you cucu." Link scolded the thing in his cap, giving it a small shake to better shush it.

It didn't work. All his captive did was go back to kicking. Needle sharp talons raked and razed Link's green shirt. It ribboned quite nicely under the avian's assault.

Great, just one more thing to explain to Grand'ma.

Heaving a sigh, Link, ever a thoughtful boy, closed the big door behind him. It shut with a boom and there he was. Out. Or rather in a hallway built for outside. Landings bulged out on either side –said landings spaced haphazardly about- of the outdoor hallway, the floor, walls, and murky ceiling was made of that all too familiar grey stone, and the whole of it inclined slow but sure, rising ever up.

Considering his aching knees this sure beat stairs. Link tried, and found a smile. Things were looking good, looking up, and beyond the hall there it was, another barrel, likely empty, it couldn't get better than th-

Another muffled scream, another slashing scuffle, and he had a new tear in his shirt courtesy if the guest in his hat.

Brother.


	25. The Outsider: part 6: Burning Air

Song of the Seagulls 

Chapter 25

The outsider: part 6: Burning Air

"Murph!"

The thrashing, half in half out of the hat bird was by no means docile. The avian's talons had scored his arms with long burning scratches that ran from knuckle to elbow. Red and sore, or rather nose sore from where he'd been pecked, Link knew this wasn't one of his better days.

Still trails aside, he'd managed to stuff his attacker into the oversized cap grand'ma had given him for his birthday. Beak first.

It muffled the screaming.

"Augh!"

Not that the bird had stopped howling just yet.

With a spectacular twist of its back, the bird managed to spin about and claws that had been facing harmlessly raking air were now not so harmlessly latched onto his shirt front. Yelping in pain Link dropped his dubious prize and hopped back. A least he'd meant too, oversized wet boots didn't help his coordination any. With a grunt the capped bird smacked into the ground, splatted actually… After a few breathless moments, where Link got to sorta standing, he had the dubious pleasure of watching his assailant wiggle one wing free. Claws clicked on stone, then once one taloned foot was gripped on stone the other reached up. It was the only way to describe it. After a little bit of groping, as if testing the edges of its own mobility, the bird got to gripping the upper edge of the cap. Pushing up, it stepped back, all in one graceful motion.

Too tired to really care anymore, Link just watched the animal stand up, shake its head, and fluff its feathers with an irritated hiss. Equilibrium in place, gathered after a few deep breaths, the bird whipped its head about to spear the Outsetter with a venomous glare. Snapping its beak in an obvious threat it narrowed blood red eyes. Sure that the child was content to stay the beast clawed up and out, racing through outdoor halls into welcoming skies.

Weird, too weird. Fully standing, shaking his head, Link wandered to the arch the bird had flown out. Another landing to nowhere greeted him. Looking upm into starless skies, the boy sighed, leaned against the cold stone's curved wall. Another moment, something niggled and he bent to get his torn hat. A quick look by the chancy light showed him that its last occupant hadn't left any gifts, so he popped it back on and felt a little better.

It wouldn't do to lose his hat, grand'ma had given him. Wouldn't be right.

The familiar pounding of sea on stone coaxed him forwards a little more. A look down satiated all curiosity and caused his eyes to bug. Like black teeth from some impossible beast, stone fangs jutted from the surf, white fecks of surf foamed amongst the spaces. Swallowing hard, the boy took one step back, another…

All thoughts of looking up, looking for seagulls with his sister's telescope fled. He patted his pocket, sure it was there, and that was enough for now. He'd find a safer place to walk out, a safer edge with railing then he'd look up with the 'scope and…

And something about him buzzed. An irate hum from about his neck that caused him to hop. It was something he felt more than heard. With a yelp he pulled at the chain around his neck, feeling dumber by the moment for not having noticed it before. One tug, a little winding and the small links were about his fingers, a green stone rested in the palm of his hand.

Now, as a rule, and as a boy (and proud of it, girls were sooo boring), Link just didn't wear jewelry, so where in the Seas did this thing come fr-

Memory: _A wink, Tetra's hand patting his head, teased his hair, something cool slid about his neck even as he thrashed and screamed_.

And thus he'd found an answer, not the why it was humming, but the how he'd gotten it. It buzzed again, something was moving amongst the grass green thing in its discordance. Lifting it up, wondering where the specks of red had gotten in the green stone; he wondered why they looked familiar. Mouth opening, to say something like "What the?" he was spared from his own stupidity as the "what" met his shoulder and closed down with hot, hateful, claws.

Link managed one scream as it pulled him forward. Wind and heat and black beating wings ushered him along, pushed him to the edge with its black teeth and sea foamed lips. Digging his heels in, yelping an "I don't wanna!" he slipped on sea slicked stones.

That saved him, not Goddess' grace, but his own lack of…

The bird loosed its grip and fluttered off so not to get squished. Screeching bad bird words all the while. The air, _honest to the Seas_ , the air _sizzled_ with the rage of the monster's passing.

That did it. Rolling over on his stomach, going flat as he could –wind whispered, claws scrapped the air about his head, ripping off his hat as it passed- Link staggered to his feet. Hatless, and not caring for any lectures he might get, or would get, or whatever. He raced for a door, any door. Out or up didn't matter. _In_ was the most important thing of all. Forgetting his sister, or why he was here, all Link wanted was away from the evil bird of death.

Surely his eyes were wide, his face fixed in a terrorized grimace. The blue pigs had _nothing_ on this bird.

Not one single thing.

Eyes locked to the sky, the Outsetter raced down the hall, trying to divorce black bird from lightless skies, seeking the spots of ember that differentiated the two.

But he was just a boy. Not familiar with the dark, Link ran on. Terror wasn't the best teacher, not in this case. As the number of claws and gashes he picked up in his mad run up the ramp confirmed.

Terror had nothing to teach him, nothing at all.

A door, small, normal sized. No booming at all required for opening or closing. He ripped it open, hope made the knob a blur. Link pulled it open and slammed it shut almost sobbing all the while.

Beyond the barrier claws scarred wood, mad screams pounded like fists, shattering the dark, making shade shutter in fear.

And the air burned.

 


	26. The Outsider part 7:From Bad to…

Song of the Seagulls

Chapter 26

The Outsider part 7:From Bad to…

She'd coaxed him down a few turns. Not in the base proper, but about halfway between the tower with its overlarge seagull cage and the main fortress before. It was there, on a gloom grey landing, they'd tried, and failed, to summon seagulls. It was on the tip of her tongue to say "Let's go back" because it was cold, and wet, and dark out when those things that she might have considered "bad" had gotten worse.

As for how things were worse, well there were many things that happened at once. Whooping lights combed the skies beyond Forsaken, the light roused all the winged inhabitants of the fortress, sending them to flight. For a few breathtaking moments the very air was alive with the whirl of wings as fluttering birds and screaming Keese clogged up heaven.

Hyoi pear perched between the limp stubs that were his ears; WormEatter looked first to her than to the sky.

"This supos'ta happen?"

"No." Eyes wide, Aryll shook her head, looking at the sky with her dark eyes.

"I get it really wrong?" The Mokoblin whimpered.

"No." Aryll murmured. She swallowed the familiar sick taste of her budding fear. "No, it's not supposed do this."

Above, about, birds screamed, Keese circled, and thunder that wasn't drew near. One quick look to heaven, a flash of steel on starless sky, made gold by trailing light, made WormEatter squeal. Snatching up the girl's limp arm he turned her so she could see, snout tipped to up high, unable to look away, he order her to do what she was most obviously doing.

"Island she! Look, look!"

Aryll looked up and her eyes which were once merely wide nearly bugged out of her skull.

"Bad bird, big bad bird!"

Above, trailing water from its feathers nad red from its claws, the monster's massive wings slicing through the air with thunderous detonations, the Helmroc King screamed his agreement. Raking stone pathways with dead fish yellow eyes, the bird's hiss sounded volcanic. Its frenzied flapping slowed, and then its wings quivered to a hesitant stall. Beak snapped open, arresting itself mid scream; it glared at them, talons twitching.

Aryll didn't have to think, the truth of that horrid moment, all thought was impossible.

"Run!" She snapped up the green pig's arm, and with a startled grunt Wormeatter raced up the ramp with her.

Above, beyond, almost lost in a cloud of shrieking avians, the Helmroc King let out a blistering scream all its own and dropped from the sky, talons stretched before it, eyes flashing a mad crimson.

XXX

Another empty barrel, another "perfect" hiding spot. He didn't bother lifting the bottomless barrel's sides this time. Part for vanity, part from exhaustion, Link decided he wasn't in the mood to wear a wooden skirt barrel thing, so he shuffled on, pushing on the outer walls to move forward and trusting the limited view provided by a handy knot hole to guild him. There wasn't a guard in sight, and considering that all the guards had lanterns Link didn't have to strain his eyes in the least when pig hunting. Smiling wide, he almost whistled, caught himself last second, and with a drizzled off twitter recalled that silence was golden.

Especially when it warded off those blood red eyes.

Scratching and scraping his way up ramps that bound the second level to the third Link paused in a gloom span of the walkway. With a grunt he pushed up the top of his barrel's lid, and peeped out with the telescope Sis had given him. A quick look on high, a familiar flash of white among the black, and he smiled. With a soft series of clicked he collapsed than folded the red 'scope in his pocket and pulled his "hat" in place.

While wood, and flat, and not as snug as the hat Grand'ma'd given him, he'd take what he could. Grunting, growling, he pushed on the edge of his disguise, shuffling a few more inches forward, oblivious to the racket he was raising. A gargled giggle made Link stop. There it was again, that really annoying sound! Pressing a pointed ear to the wooden side, he flitted from one knot hole to the other, which really meant he looked out the comfy one, than bending over double in the barrel's confines to find the other.

Nothing, just like last time.

Forging secrecy, and sneaky, he waited in until he was sure he was facing the giggling whatever it was and with a savage "hi ya!" bounced out of his mobile disguise. Shield in one hand, lid serving as impromptu sword in the other. A flick of gold amongst the shade winked out with a startled sounding "tweep!" and all was quiet.

Well, sorta.

A chorus of screams, bird screams, greeted the chagrinned silence after his battle cry. Black and white, they tore from their nests on Forsaken's winding path up, flying blindly into the night. It was then, all those second thoughts, those "maybes" and "shoulda's" reared their cheerful heads, even as Link stood on the walkway amongst a rain of feathers. Puffing on one insistent grey feather that seemed intent on flying up his nose, the Outsetter winced.

"Oops…"

One light, from a distant tower highlighted the birds in their flight, swept up to the biggest, baddest bird Link had ever seen, then lighted down to the shock still Outsetter.

Oops indeed.

"Umm…" turning to the light, trying a sunny smile, the boy waved to the whatever it was atop the tower. "Hi, I'm lost!"

Alarms screamed, cut through the dark night and more lights flared into life on distant towers, streaming down to where the first one was focused. Well, while these were probably monsters and not people it was sorta nice to be the center of attention. Link tried to focus on that, forced his smile wider.

"I'll just.. umm … be leaving now.. With my sister."

As if the things afar and up high honestly cared. Still, he shuffled one foot to the other, spared a glance to the path ahead. Wood swayed, bound by rope it all but sang to him. Promising a path leading to the last stretch of wherever up… went.

But up was where he was going. Where the seagulls were, where his sister was. That's where he was going to go, big birds, bad birds, and creepy pig people aside. He was gunna go up, but he did so slowly, one foot shuffling after the other, slinking out of the dogged light.

He didn't want to be rude and all.

"I'm going now, bye!"

That was polite enough, more than enough really. Turning on his heel he was going to run off, off and up and to his sister than far away.

A soft plop caused the boy to hop, banished all thoughts of running. He turned to the surprising sound, expecting bird droppings or worse. _That_ wasn't so bad, not really. Or so went the boy's first thought. Just his green cap falling from above.

Then he remembered where he'd left his green cap.

And with who…

His heart sunk, and as if to help his despair along there came a familiar, smoky "kree kree" that made his skin crawl and brought images of hot claws and red eyes to the fore. His nose hurt, something fierce, and he rubbed it, trying to ignore how his arms hurt too.

"Not _you_ again!"

Red eyes glimmering with malice, perched on the ropes of the bridge, intent obvious, the bird twiddled a talon along the rope pushing obvious to cliché with one idle motion. Letting out a long string of "krees", the bird threw its long neck back. Cackling to the sky for the Sea's sake! This place was crazy, Link decided. Was crazier than crazy. A _bird_ had a mad man's laughter, a villain's laughter. It was an evil bird, a demon bird king, and a pipsqueak besides.

The avian scraped a claw along the rope, laughter done now, edges of its beak … curled… in a devil grin.

That decided things, once and for all. Lips pressing into a thin line, the Outsetter shifted his grip on the barrel's lid.

"Go away!" He half turned wholly threw, and for once, when it mattered most, he hit. With a squawk the bird staggered, should of toppled under the strike but didn't. But that didn't matter. Link made a run for it. Pausing for just one moment to snap up his dropped cap.

"Awk Awk!"

"Oh shut up!" Link hollered over his shoulder, skirting past the wobbling bird, minding the beak that snapped out as he went by. He pounded over the bridge; wood planks a hollow blur, then from behind, a hiss, a snap. And more ominous, more scary than that, there came a triumphant scree.

A look down showed the planks to be peeling away, with an agonizing slowness that told of last moments, long falls, and a lot of screaming was to follow before the fall's final step called impact. Not wanting any of _that_ Link jumped, and got a smaller impact for his efforts. Even as the wood skipped away, pulled down and scrapped against the stone flank of Forsaken the Outsetter smashed into the lip of the other side. Gripping the edge, holding tight even as rope whipped about him and timber cracked and tumbled against the stone. Taking one breath, another, he hung on for dear life, unable to do anything else for the longest of moments. He was just… stupefied, as Grand'ma woulda said "the lantern hung in the window, but no one was home".

Teetering on the edge of shock and hysterics the Ousetter forgot everything and laughed.

Not a crazy laugh, or a mad man's laugh, but one of shear relief. Still giggling, he pushed up, swung one leg over the edge and rolled himself onto the main path. Snickering like a mad thing, even though he wasn't, Link smiled at the black sky. Light, birds, and monster's just _weren't_ for a little.

Until that sound, that hiss, a flash of red and malice fluttered above his head and brought it all back.

"Ya know, I usta _like_ birds." He groaned, struggling to his feet, still smiling. "Now I just want chicken soup."

Claws and fire circled up high, holding his hat down even as he ran Link saw another bridge. A screech from up high warned him that the bird had seen it too. Ducking low, running faster, almost his fastest, Link raced on even as the bird pulled up for a talon edged dive. And crazy as it seemed, as he ran, the Outsetter had to wonder if Aryll still liked birds. The Sea's knew he didn't. Not anymore, anyway.


End file.
